Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-10-08
IMAGINARY pRqPER1TY.
Becoming DIssusted win Exagsrations
That Only Damad Business

oeiialre tribune (Rep.l
The blooming booters are begin
ming to realize that tb day when bust
ness can be run ouwind and enter
prises started on fxtravagant fairy
tales has gone by. lever in the history
OF this or any othe country has there
been such a systenAtic and widespread
organized movemat to make tie peo-
pie believe that | condition of pros
perity exists thadtheir eyes were un-
able to discover wen the preliminary
symptoms of. Ills has been done on
the theory that he imagination was
powerful factortn controlling human
action and tnattf men could be made
to believe thatthere were prosperous
conditions thaqthey would act and do
business lust Is If prosperous condi-
tions really disted. The mistake in
this theory Wis in assuming that the
imagination tat may affect the phys
ical condition if the imaginative indi-
vidual is pl$ed upon by stronger
minds. becaue many of the SO called
ills that affiit the human system are
imaginary oil at least the result Of i'm
aginary conditions that have no real
existence while in the business rela-
tions Of lifekverything is stubborn re-
atty, affect|d only by tangible causes
and the opdation of real influences. II
3 merchant'relies upon the wild state
ments of vivid imaginations that good
times are here, when there is no in
crease in his customers or their pur-
chases, he may apparently help the
wholesale man by increasing his sales
and he in turn may order more goods
from the manufacturers, and thus Gre
ate what may seem like better cOndi-
tons but when purchasers fail to take
the Increased quantity of goods off the
merchants hands, he is unable to pay
whel his bills mature and enlbarrasses
the wholesale man and he in turn the
manufacturer, then the condition of all
three is worse for believing the stories
about the imaginary prosperity that
had existance only in stupid imag-
ination, or in a cunning purpose of I'M
scrupulous politicians to fool the peo-
pie
The work of exploiting grossly ex-
agerated statements, during the past
six months, as to increased demand for
labor to supply starting factories,
great improy ements and enlargements
of existing factories and the construc-
ton of new ones of colossal proper
lions, .e--ffs q proper answer in the re-
port of the great Pennsylvania railroad
system that assures the public that for
the eight months ending the last Of
September the gross earnings of that
entire system was $80O,800 less than
for the same eight months of 1896,
when there was an unprecedented po-
utical campaign disturbing the bust
ness conditions Of the country. AS
result Of this diminished business, at
time when President, cabinet officers,
Senator's and partisan newspapers were
assuring the country that there was
constantly increasing business, the
Pennsylvania Company has been COM
PEELED to cut the wages of its employees,
reduce expenditures for improvements,
aud reduce expenses" Of management
to the extent of nearly three million
dollars within the last eight months,
in order to meet it's interest and divi-
dend liabilities. Precisely the same
thing has been happening in nearly all
lines of productive energy, and to-day
the labor Of the country is lower than
it was last year and the labor popula-
tion has less money to expend in pur-
chases, the number of which determine
the increase or decrease of business
than last year.
1Much is said and written about large
expenditures Of money to enlarge mills
and factories and increase their pro-
ductive power. These statements are
all gross exaggerations, a sample Of
which we had about the Bellaire steel
plant that has been doing boom work
in the press of the country from ocean
to ocean, as flaming example of what
the party victory Of last year had done.
One fact is that these plants were all
prepared and the improvements deter
mined upon before that victory and a
large part of them actually completed.
Another fact, and very significant one
is, that these improvements are now
all completed and the Bellaire steel
plant employs less labor now than be-
fore the changes were made, and it will
be found on careful investigation that
seven dollars out of every ten dollars
expended in the past year or that will
be expended in the near future, will be
for improvement that will dispense
with labor and make it more difficult
for the labor population to get employ
ment.
Business men begin to realize the in
furious rather than beneficial effects of
this unreliable, blow-horn booming
business. The towns and cities are be-
ing flooded with unemployed labor
seeking work, because the papers have
told them there was plenty of work,
and manufacturers about whose pro-
posed enlargement of works exagger-
ated stories have been sent over the
country for effect are being greatly pes
tered by floods of applicants for work
they are unable to give them. When
the Bellaire steel plant started up it
had three applicants for every place to
be filled and the Aetna-Standard peo-
pie have been so annoyed because Of
the wild stories about the great en-
largement of the plant that they have
been compelled to call down the pros
perity booming pa"ers and ask them
to contradict the wild stories they cir
culated about greatly increased bust
ness and employment
Here in Bellaire the boom organ on
Union street has become the subject Of
ridicule among business men OF the
town and laughing stock for the peo-
pie generally, because of its ridiculous
sxaggerations and misleading state
ments about the actual business condi-
lions.
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