The Forrest City times., 1897-06-25
QUEER PROSPERITY.
Disaster Marks the Advent of inc Aa-
 vance Agent.

vance Agent.
 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reminds the Globe-Democrat that in it's issue of October 10 it declared that "immedi- ately after the election business boom like that which started with the re- sumption of gold payments in 1879 will set m" Another leading republican editor said: "The people await the night of November for the wires to send a thrill through the country that will set in motion the millions of mez now idle" How were these prophecies and promises fulfilled?
 For few weeks after election, ai- though the wave of prosperity did not appear. employers, self-deluded but ex- pectant. made no cuts in wages and kept their forces of men. Then, finding that trade did not revive, that capital did not come forth from it's hiding places. and that confidence" had not been restored, numbers of employers and corporations began the process of reducing wages and curtailing expenses that is inevitable under the gold stand ard. and the process has been going on ever since. Here are a few of the reductions reported. and which arc enumerated by the Post-Dispatch. show ing "how prosperity came:"
 Beginning promptly with the new year the following firms cut wages or shut down their works. in many cases forcing their employees into strikes: Illinois Steel company. cut wages: Horn Coal company, DuQuoin. H., cut wages; Mueller & Hellman's Shoe com pany. cut wages; Maple Hill mines. Bar ton, O., strike; Massillon. O., mines. cut wages; Niedringhaus rolling mills. St Louis, cut wages; American rattan works, cut wages; Bridge & Beach. stovemakers. reduced number of em- pioyes and cut wages; Tudor iron mills, East St. Louis, shut down. Panhandle mine, Pittsburgh mining district, be- longing to Mark Hanna, cut wages to starvation point: Keystone rolling mill and other plants at Pittsburgh. in which Mark Hanna is interested. cut wages; Old Dominion Copper company, Globe, A. T., shut down; Keb mines, Ottumwa, 1a., imported colored miners to take the places of white strikers: BelIeville nail mills, cut wages; Westinghouse Air Brake company, cut wages; Tennessee Coal and Iron company, cut wages; Rockford, H.. cooper shops. cut wages, forcing lockout; journeyman horse shoers, of St. Louis. on strike for scale wages; building trades workers of Chi cago, forced to strike; 4.0O0 miners at Jelico. Ky, forced to sttike; $500 min- CTS in Tennessee struck against reduc- tion; Thurmond mines. West Virginia, cut down wages of 5000 miners; 22. 1000 tailors in New York forced to strike against starvation. wages: Sandoval. H., mines closed indefinitely.
 Besides this, on January 2s, the police and charity organizations reported 20,- 900 men idle in St. Louis and at least 50,- GOO in dire need of food. clothing and fuel The Illinois legislature took of ficial notice recently of the fact that the coal miners of the state were starv- ing, and ordered an investigation. And every few days some poor wretch has fallen out of the ranks of the destitute and despairing by ending his own life
 This is how prosperity came as the result of McKinley's election. What would the people not give for another chan e at the Advance Agent of Pros perity."-Illinois State Register.