Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-06-11
MoK1UIEY's PROMISED PROSPERITY

: At Pittsburgh many idle factorie
!. were found and 5000 mon were on
strike on account of cut Of ten pc
cent. in their wages. Their employe
d sent his men to Canton last fall t
hear Mckinley promise prosperit,
that has never came
At New Brunswick, N. j., nearly
all of the thirty odd factories were
either shut down or running on shor'
time. At Midtown, a suburb, the
rubber works, the towns great indus
try employ ing 600 hands, was shut
down and starvation was staring the
idle workmen in the face.
At LambertviIle, N. j., the railroad
shops of the Pennsylvania line were
only running As hours a week. The
shops employ $50 men. When the
notice reducing the hours was posted,
Republican carpenter named Sam'l
Curry snatched his Mckinley button
from his coat and stamped it und er
his foot.
At Camden, N. j., several big mills
employing a thousand hands we're
idle and 796 families we're being cared
for by the charity associations.
In Elizabeth, n. j. there have been
many strikes, wages have been cut
and hundr eds of workmen are out Of
employment.
Canton, Ohio, McKinley's own town
has been heavy sufferer from the
effects of contraction. Since January
there have been 35 assignments, the
liabilities aggregating $43S,5O0.
There have also been IS mortgages
foreclosed, aggregating $40, 826.07,
mostly small debts against the poor.
In Hanna's county, the foreclosures
have in that time footed up no.
$50, and the real estate mortgages
recorded in Cuyahoga county amount
TO S4,5S5,900 For the whole State
the failures are estimated at $50,000,-
300, or $4,000 900 a month.
In Chicago there were found 81 900
die workmer. Times are dull in
every branch of business and there
nave been twelve strikes, three OF
which are still pending,
At Altoona, Pa, the situation is the
worse since the war. The Rolling
Mill hands are on a strike on account
Of a 20 per cent. cut and in many fac
tories the workmen are only working
a few hours day, The same stag
nation prevails in trade at Wilkes
barre, Carbonate and other manu-
featuring points.
At Reading, Pa, 1900 puddlers
we're on a strike on account of a ten
per cent. cut in their already reduced |
wages.
Conditions dre worse than they
we're when Mckinley was inaugural
ed at Alton, Spring Valley, Peoria,
Bloomington and other points in H.
linois. Many workmen are idle, cuts
have everywhere been made in wages
and mills are running on short time.
There have been several strikes at
these points,
In Philadelphia the mills are prac-
tically at standstill and $4,000 work.
men are unemployed and 5000 gar
ment makers are on strike.
These are but sample reports of the
general tale of woe and restitution all
over the country,
Here in Kentucky the situation is
almost appalling. A gentleman from
Louisville, who is in a position to
know, told the Kentuckian few days
ago, that the whole city of Louisville
was trembling on the verge of bank
ruptcy. Failure after failure has oc.
CURED amongst the biggest establish
ments of the city and many others
are practically insolvent. In every
part of the State the same conditions
exist. Here in Hopkinsville, said by
drummers to be the best town in the
State, fifteen vacant business houses,
and five failures in one block since
the election, speak for themselves.
The only consoling feature about
present conditions is that the times
now are not as hard as they will be
before we get rid of McKinleyism.