The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-07
PROSPERITY IN INDIANA.


and pay rolls show that, without exception,
they are employing more men, paying more
wages and doing a much larger business
now than at any time for several years.
There is not paper published anywhere
in the gas belt or resident of that section
that will not confirm this testimony of
manufacturers and employees. But the con-
ditions in that favored portion of the State
are peculiar and the decryers of prosperity
might claim that 1t is confined to the limits
of the gas belt. That is not true. and the
claim would be as promptly denied by
papers and residents outside of the gas belt
as by the others. The truth is, a healthy
degree of prosperity prevails throughout the
whole State There is not a manufacturer
or business man in this city who does not
know that is the case here, and it is equal
~ so in other cities and towns outside of
the gas belt. For instance, the New AL
bany Tribune publishes some facts regard
ing the manufacturing industries of that
city which are of more than local interest
In order to ascertain if there was any
foundation for the calamity editorials of the
local Democratic paper, the Tribune inter-
viewed some of the leading manufacturing
industries and reports as follows:
The New Albany Manufacturing Company
makes steamboat machinery, grinders for
WindoW-glass factories and so on. 1t makes
the supplies for steamers made at Towards
shipyard at Jeffersonville, and sends its sup
pies to points in the South Mobile and
other places. This establishment employed
IN lSS5-lSS4 from twenty-five to thirty-five
hands; now 1t employs from sixty-five to
eighty. Then its weekly pay roll was $780,
now 1t is $Sl5 and the largest it has ever
mad: Then 1t was running three days in a
week; now it runs full time and frequently
~ Keep up with its orders, which are con-
stantly increasing.
The Charles Hegewald Company con-
tinued In operation during all the hard
times, but the product now amounts to
nearly double what it was four years ago.
1t is $15O.0OO; it was $4,000 in 1894. Them
there We're seventy-five hands employed,
now there are 125 Then the weekly pay roll
was $500. now it is $3.50. The same wages
per man are paid now as then.
Joseph & Joseph are the proprietors now
OF the works of the Indiana Forge~9nd Roll
ing Mill Company. In 1894 they employed
$50 men, now they employ $50 men, Then
they about half time, now full time and
frequently double turn. In 1894 the weekly
product was $1,000, now it is $4,000. The
weekly pay roll in 1894 was from $500 to
$1,000, now it is from 81 800 to $4,000 Wages
are now about the same as then There has
been no decrease.
The NJ. Zier Company in 1S93-1S94 employed
fifteen men on weekly pay roll of $3.50:
now they employ lbs men on weekly pay
roll of 81 200 Then the work required eight
hours day. now the work Is on full time
and largely double turn.
Wages are the some now as before. They
have not been decreased. The product this
year is a little more than double that of
last year, and they have contracts amount
ing to $500 a week executed at the works
of the New Albany Manufacturing Com
pany, the two establishments interchanging
on certain kinds of contracts.
After long period of idleness, the wooden
mills are running. with over 300 hands.
The hosiery mill is busy and the same is
true of the other establishments which We
have not had time to visit. Taking all our
manufacturing establishments together, the
year over four years ago is nearly If not
quite. 100 per cent. and hundreds more peo-
pie are employed
There is no installing the significance of
these facts. They mean more than the
of New Albany, and are the re-
suit of conditions which are general. The
South Bend Tribune, published in one of
the best manufacturing cities of the State,
on the opposite border from New Albany,
bears similar testimony regarding that city.
it said:
In the number OF men employed some rae
tories have about the same as usual while
others have more and some the largest num-
Der in their history. This latter is true of
several Of the largest plants An increased
number of men at work means an increase
In the aggregate of the pay roll, so that
several factories have now bigger pay rolls
sum paid out for labor higher than it ever
has been in this city. 1t is next to impos-
sible to learn exactly what this difference
is, but an employe of one of the leading
who has attempted to gather sta
tistics among some of the larger plants
says that the aggregate increase to his per-
sonal knowledge is about $5OOOOO.
If there is a city or town in the State be-
tween South Bend and New Albany that
is not feeling the effects of better times
within the last two years, the Journal does
not know where to find it. In order to
gauge the feeling in other places, the Trib-
une sent out letters to manufacturers in
curing as to the condition of trade in their
respective localities, the business outlook,
if there had been any increase in the num-
Der of workmen, in wages, etc. Some of the
answers from outside of the gas belt are as
follows:
From Brazil a leading firm writes: "The
conditions are much better than in the past
few years. There are no idle laborers; all
are busily employed, and the outlook is
good There has been a steady increase of
laborerS employed this year over the past
three or four years. There has also been a
decided increase of wages, especially among
the miners. The total amount of this In
crease will be fully 10 per cent. This city
is enjoying prosperity in a very marked de-
gree. There are but few idle men to be
found and they are usually so from choice.
The Michigan City Lumber and Coal Com
pany writes that business in Michigan City
is greatly improved over the past few years,
and the outlook seems to be good. the
number of wage earnerS employed in the
city has increased about ZOO In general
way the conditions in the city seem to be
looking up.
The leading lumber manufacturers at
Burket, KoSciuSko county, say: The bust
ness condition of our little town at present
is we suppose. so per cent. better now than
business outlook is exceedingly good. As
regards the increase in wage earners now,
everybody can get work. while in former
years this was not the case. AS to wages,
they are about the same. We run about
forty men, and pay them about 80 per cent.
more now than formerly, on account of
more time being put in
The Niles & Scott Company, of Laporte
writes: There has been an increase III the
number of wage earners over past years
The increase in number is notable in the
of harness. bicycles, tanning
mills and horseless carriages Some of the
concerns that ordinarily shut down one or
and make repairs Ian excused. ran steadily
and postponed the shut down. The rate of
wages remains the same: q few individual
and some diminutions for the pur-
nose of equalization There has been an in
crease in the amount of wages paid in ali Of
wooden and the carriage, for the year end
ing Sept go 1898, over the preceding year,