The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1896-11-28
GOOD TIMES AND FAKE NEWS.

i Prior to the recent election the vot-
ers af the country were assured that
Mckinley was the advance agent of
| prosperity and good times would sure
ly come If he were chosen president.
Well. Mckinley was elected, and for IA
few days after the eventful November
Sd, there was squirt and the news
papers published lists of factories
which had started to work after
months of idleness. The squirt. which
ended as suddenly as it began, re-
| suited It appears in an Investigation
as to tt:e cause of the unexpected
! check, and it is now charged that the
| reports Of great industrial activity
| brought about by the election of Me-
kinl+v wete fakes invented for politi-
| cal effect.
These reports. SO encouraging 10 the
people Of the country, who are willing
to accept and enjoy good times aud
applaud the political party that gives
them, We're soon followed by announce
ments of business failures, and the
reduction of wages aud the curtail-
ment of working forces employed II,
various lines of industry. At the
beginning Of last week the St. Paul
railroad closed ono of its largest shops
and discharged a large number of men
tor the reason, as given by the man.
agement of the road, that there was
"nothing to haul, and on FRIDAY last
the Panhandle road laid off 422 men.
The following day the Chicago Tribune
printed tic following dispatch dated
at Bloomington, III.
1sThe Chicago & Alton managers
announced a reduction of hours of
labor i'll their general shops in Bioom-
lngton from eight to seven each day,
going iato effect yesterday morning.
1t was also announced that the shops
would be closed from the 25th inst, to
Dec. 1, and that during the month of
December the 1000 men employed
will be given thirty, two hours work
per week. General superintendent
Gray said tonight that the action OF
the company is caused by the decrease
os freight and passenger traffic, and
also results from the fact that tile
Alton employed the shopnen ten hours
a day all through last summer, while
the Wabash and other roads were run
ming short time or had closed their
shops. The men are paid by the
hour
This Looks rs though a very dis
tiessins reaction had followed the
alleged industrial sputt, the fruit of
Mckinley's victory, but the reduction
OF the hours of labor and the conse-
quent reduction of wages is not con-
fined to the West. On the same day
the dispatch was sent out from Bloom
ington the press dispatches from R0ch-
ester, n. Y. announced the fact that
the wages of the employees of the shoe
factories in that city had been cut 10
per cent, and in Elmira, N. Y, the
shoe factories shortened the hours of
work on the ground that the stores all
over the country are glutted with
shoes and there were no Few orders
being received.
1t is to be hoped that the predictions
of general prosperity, which our Re-
publican friends SO freely made before
the election Of Mckinley will be full
filled, and we are constrained to be-
lieve that eventually there will be
b tterment of existing conditions, but
what the people who have suffered SO
nuch from three years of depression,
desire is genuine good times, good
times for all classes and not those of
brummagem character which help
only the trusts and the syndicates that
are even now raising the price of the
products they c0ntrOl.-States.