Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-09-16
THE BUSINESS DEPRESSION.

A Serious Condition of Anairs--what Shall
DO DonsG-rhe Evils OF High Taxation.
Rr-SssGtar RaRGcs al Hsrpz's Ferry.
The business interest Of the people are
involved in the question of taxation. and
Iere must be some cause for the present
stagnStion in business. Furnaces are being
blown out; iron and cotton mills are run
ming upon half time; coke ovens and coal
mines are paying starvation wages the
people are suffering and the ability to gain
= livelihood bears harder and still harder
upon those who toll; values are shrinking
and welLnigh armed warfare proves that
there is difficulty between capital and labor
The troubles in Hooking Valley, in Ohio;
me arrest and Imprisonment of hundreds OF
miners in the Mononsshela Valley,in Penn
sylvanis, for breaches or supposed breaches
of law in the effort for work and bread, and
the distress and depression in mining and
manufacturing industries everywhere are
proofs Of some great evil in gov
ernmentsl policy. The people feel
the pinch Of hard times and
they naturally attribute ii to the mismsn.
sgement, misgoyernment and extravagauce
of the party in power. We are glutted with
more goods and products Of our own than
we can dispose Of Our market is only at
home, and It being filed the only remedy is
TO discharge the workmen, let the mines,
furnaces, factories and coke ovens lie idle,
sacrifice our goods and wait until our pol
icy of home trade permits US sgsint to 60 to
work. We have lost our foreign trade for
manufactured articles and the sea is the
limit to our markets. Large production,
skill in craftsmanship and plentiful food which
ought to bring happy homes and plenteous
wealth, now bring but depression and dis
tress. The laboring man is the first to feel
the pressure, for the first thing done is to
shorten the hours of work or 10 reduce
wages He is faced at once with want Of
the bare neceSsaries Of life. He has no
where to turn for days work Perjury
and distress are upon him and his family.
What is the cause Of all these ills? What
IS the remedy? These are the questions
to which, as reasonable men, we should ad-
dress ourselves. The masses of the Ameri-
can people seek to do right, and party bias
and party zeal will always yield before
uuluf luSuCe anu uuolSputcu LdCtS. VIC
charge upon the Republican party that their
policy Of large grants of public lands to
railroad corporations and their high tax.
alton of the people to maintain an enorm-
Gus surplus Of money in the Federal Treas
urY are the leading causes of our present
business distress, and especially are they
the causes Of the glut Of production. the
glut of labor and the misery and distress
Of the miner, the artisan and the sgricul
turist.
Their policy affecting taxation. their
statutes granting pnbEe lands and their
stolidity as to our shipping and commercial
interests have shrunken our trade. whilst
our inventive genius and the vast tide Of
have Welded capacity for pro.
duetion in largely increased ratio. The
result is business depression aud overpro-
duction, glut and misery.
The policy that produces and main.
tsins in the Federal Treasury . surplus of
over 800, 000, 900 is an unnecessary bur
den and destroys our industries To il
more than ell else is attributable the bust
ness paralysis eff the present hour. This
money comes from the earnings Of the peo-
pie and if il were now back in the channels
of trade and the policy that produced it
we're reversed every artery Of commercial