St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-07-17
QUEER PROSPERITY.
Disaster Marks the Advent OF the .Ads
vance Agent.

Disaster Marks the Advent OF the .Ads
vance Agent.
The st. Louis ost-Dispatch reminds
the Globe-D Democrat that in its 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 in.s' Another leading republican
editor said: 1.-THE people await The
night of November 8 for the wires to
send a thrill through the country that
| will set in motion the millions OF men
now idle" How were these prophecies
and promises fulfilled?
For few weeks after election, al
though the wave of prosperity did not
appear, employers, se1f-deluded but ex-
pectant, made no cuts in wages and
kept their forces ofmen. 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 few of the
reductions reported, and which are
enumerated by the PostDispatch, show
ing how prosperity Games"
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 en-
pfoyes and ctIt wages, utfof iron IIiifs,
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. r., shut down; Keb mines, Ottumwa,
| Ia, imported colored miners to take the
places of white strikers; Belleville nail
mills, cut wages; Westinghouse Air
| Brake company, cut wages; Tennessee
| Coal and Iron company, cut wages;s
Rockford, Ill, cooper shops, cut wages,
forcing a lockout; journeyman horse
| shoers, of st. Louis, on strike for scale
| wages; building trades workers of Chi
cago, forced to strike; 1000 miners at
| Jelico, KY, forced to strike; $500 min
| ers in Tennessee struck against reduc-
ton; Thurnond mines, West Virginia,
cut down wages of 5000 miners; $4,000
| tailors in New York forced to strike
against starvation wages; Sandoval,
Ill, mines closed indefinitely.
Besides this, on January %, the police
and charity organizations reported 2o,-
coo men idle in st. Louis and at least 50,-
600 in dire need of food, clothing and
fuel The Illinois legislature took Of
fetal 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
chance at the ..Advance Agent Of Pros
| perity. Illinois State Register.