Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-05-05
BUSINESS BOOMING.
MORE WORK AND HIGHER WAGES
SINCE THE ELECTION.

Contrary to the Predictions of the Protec-
tionists the Country Has Not Started on
the Toboggan Slide - Cotton and Steel
Have Both Advanced In Price.
calamity howlers'' have changed
sides since Nov. s. Before election all
who did not think we could tax our
selves into prosperity and who quoted
statistics of increasing mortgages and
millionaires and gave some Of the facts
in regard to the hundreds of bounty fed
trusts that were advancing prices at one
end of their factories and reducing wages
at the other end were calamity howl
ers," as the McKinleyites said. Since
election the protectionists have turned
about face and are doing some bowling
on their own account, or at least have
begun to tune up their bowler instru-
ments, for up to date, by some singular
freak of fortune or misfortune, there has
been, outside of the wage reductions in
the pearl button industry and the cessa-
ton of that other great Mckinley pro-
tege, the tin mining industry, nothing
to howl about. Instead of the protected
industries getting ready to start 'to de-
struction on toboggan slide," as some
of the protectionists still promise, the
most of our important industries are not
only prosperous just now, but are look
ing ahead, under the promise Of free raw
materials, to even greater prosperity.
The manufacturers Of cotton and wooden
goods have been SO unusually busy since
the country fully decided to go to the
dogs that wages have advanced from 5
to 10 per cent in the cotton industry, and
the price of wool has gone up several
cents per pound. The iron and steel in
dustry also is not preparing for the tut
ter destruction" to which it was doomed
if the free traders should get control of
the government and diminish the supply
of the pap to this whopping infant. The
engagements and improvements now
occurring in this industry in anticipa-
ton of free ores and an enlarged demand
for finished products are sufficient to
give the blues to this second crop of ca
lamityites Here are few of the latest
of these tantalizing items:
On April it was reported from Pitts
burg that the Carnegie Steel company,
the largest Of the kind in America, was
preparing for boom by increasing the
capacity of its four great plants at Brad
dock, Duquesne. Eeayer Falls and
Homestead. At Braddock the capacity
of the blooming department is to be
doubled, two immense underground
heating furnaces to be added, and the big
foundry and machine shops increased to
provide employment for 200 more men.
At Duquesne the capacity is to be more
than doubled, and steel rails as we'll as
billets will be made. The 1000 employ
ees will be increased by several hundred.
At Homestead new press for the armor
plate works will be put in. 1t will cost
over 81 100000 and will be the largest
piece of machinery of the kind in Amer
lea, probably in the world. It will en-
able the Carnegie company to make the
greatest forgings in the world. A plate
weighing 200 tons can be worked in one
mass. At Beaver Falls two open hearth
furnaces will be added The total cost
Of all these improvements will be at least
s., 200, OO0
1t is also announced that the Tyler
Tube works at Washington, Pa, which
now employs 270 men, is to double its Ca
pacity. The Gautier Steel works of
Johnstown, Pa, is adding new build
ing for the manufacture Of merchant
steel, which will provide work for 100
new men. Many other mills are en-
larging, and others that have been closed
are starting up. The pig iron trade is
in excellent condition, and the wrought
iron pipe mills have orders ahead for six
or eight months. In some other lines
orders have been received for more than
year ahead, a most discouraging con-
dition of affairs to contemplate for the
tariff editors on Republican papers
whose hopes for promotion depend upon
the fault they can find with free trade
rule.