Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1895-10-11
A JOYOUS nLapoR pAy.n
why Worlsingmon Should Rejoice
Mckinley Hard Times Conc.

Mckinley Hard Times Gone.
Tho first Monday in September is
observed in largo number of States
as Labor Day, q holiday in honor of
the men and women who work in fac
tory, mill or mine. Tho conditions
under which tho day was celebrated
this year differ so widely from those
OF recent years, that it is not surpris.
ing that press reports should show
that unusually largo numbers of work.
ers Joined in the parados. games, pio-
MOS, etc., with which it is customary TO
honor labor's holiday.
There is good reason why tho work.
lngmen and women should havo this
year observed Labor Day with sports
and merrymaking Only year ago
the country was still in tho shadow of
the Mckinley panic, which undcr tho
operation of tho highest protective
tariff over adopted had spread ruin,
bankruptcy and poverty oil over tho
land. For threo years tho record had
been ono of closing factories, idle
mills and furnaces, and shut down
coal and iron mines, and of wage re-
duotions and unsuccessful strikes.
Tho Understanding theories of tho
Republican party had brought lower
wages, or idleness, to millions Of
American workers, and filed tho coun-
try with CoXoy armies and tramps.
In this condition Of trade stagnation
and industrial despair tho Wilson
tariff became law. For years tho
hirod servants of protected trusts and
monopolies had boon warming tho peo-
plo that any reduction in tariff taxa
alton would iniuriously affect nil
branches of industry, md reduce
wages. But tho result was exactly tho
rovcrso of tho protectionists' nsser-
tions. AS soon as tho now tariff went
into operation business hogan to re-
vive, tho number of failures deoronscd
as If by magic, factories, mills
and furnaces started up, md in.
stcnd of tho muitcring of Coxcyites
tho hum of removed prosperity WINS
hoard NIL ovor tho country, In few
months it bpcamo evident That thoro
was growing demand for working
men, and instead of tho wngo roduc-
tions which woro tho rulo under No
Kinloyism, there began sorios of
wago advances in tho leading indus
tries of tho country. Tho influence Of
returning good times was first felt in
tho wooden industry, which FREQ raw
material had greatly stimulated. Thon
quickly followed tho gront iron and
steel works, tho conl md iron minos,
tho cotton mills, pottery trados, win
dow glnss works aud various other in
dustrios, employing in NIL nj least ono
md half million workers, all of
whom have had their wagos increased
from soven to fifteen, and il Bomo
cases, twenty por cent.
Nor is thcro any reason to believe
TINT this unequalcd trAdo revival aud
advance in wages is IL temporary Rpurt
which will soon lose it's forco. On tho
contrary oach day brings nows of now
factories started, which, OF course,
means moro employment, and of
either voluntary wage advances or
successful strikes. Tho carpet weav-
ers of Philadelphia and tho $4,000
clothing makers OF Now York City,
who have just won signal victories, nro
tho latest evidence of tho continued
good results of Democratic prosper
ity. In wow of tho change in ono
year from enforced idlenoss and low
wages totabundant work md higher
pay, and with the prospect of still
greater prosperity in tho future, tho
American workers .had abundant roa-
sons for joyful observance of this m,
nual holiday.