Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-09-01
PROSPERITY RETURNING.
Wages Have Advanced and More Men
Are Finding EmpIoyment-
Hryanite uOwIers.

The American Economist prints re-
turns from 2,229 manufacturing con-
Germs, giving the number of men e m
ployed and wages paid, in March, 1895.
and also in March, 1898. These estab-
lishments, which represent every in
dustry. are scattered through AZ states
and territories. They had on their
pay rollsin March, 1895. at a time when
the violence of the panic of 1893 had
somewhat abated, 20+,5S0 hands
Those men were paid during that
month as wages the sum of $7,079,000
That was at the average rate of $34.60
per month. Last March the same es-
adjustments had on their pay rolls
2G9, 1923 men, whose wages amounted to
$10, 900. The average payment was
bare trifle less tha n S38.
Thus it appears that in three years
there was a gain of 81 per cent in the
number of men employed and of per
cent. in the rate of wages paid. These
1929 concerns, which have made re-
ports. have not been picked out be-
cause they have been enjoying special
prosperity. They are representative
of the conditions obtaining in the
classes to which they belong. There
fore, the employers have been making
successive demands upon the unem-
ployed, of whom there were so many
three years ago, until they have near
ly one-third more men in their service
than early in 1895, and are paying a
better rate of wages. The wages are
paid, too, in gold value money, and
not in free coinage silver dollars, with
purchasing power of only about 40
cents apiece.
As a result of the employment of so
many more men. and the disbursement
of so much more money in the form of
wages, all those persons who supply
the necessaries of life to the wage
workers have been benefited. The gro
GERS, the clothiers, and all other re-
tail dealers have been able to do more
business. The old debts due them
from the unemployed, whom they were
carrying, have been paid off in whole
or part. The merchants and shop
keepers have required the services of
more men, and they, too, have made
drafts on the ranks of the unemployed
The war with Spain, which began
about month after the above-men-
toned industrial returns were made,
did not throw anybody out of work.
No branch of industry was depressed
by it. 1t may be said that the transfer
of so many men from peaceful to mill
tary pursuits tended to stiffen prices
in the labor market. But it appears
from the reports of the commercial
agencies the advent of peace is to be
followed by greatly increased indus
trial activity. The working force of
the teNtile manufactures is to be in
creased. The rising demand for iron
and steel is putting up the price of
these products, and calling for the en-
ployment of more men to fill new,
| heavy orders.
In the meanwhile. the irritated and
unhappy Bryanites are crying out that
there is 10 prosperity, and no present
hope of any, and that the state of af-
fairs could not be much worse than it
is. The men who were idle in 1895 be-
cause they could not get work, though
they hunted for it, are busy now:
Wages have advanced, wages are paid
in what the Bryanites call "appre-
ciated gold dollars"-dollars which
they allege buy too much for the
workingmen who receive them. But
the Bryanites contend that all that
does not indicate prosperity. There
can be no prosperity according to
them until the country is flooded with
free coinage legal tender silver dol
lars, which viii buy only two-fifths as
much as gold value dollars do, but
which by dishonest, retroactive legis-
iation viii be made to go as far in the
payment of gold-standard debts as
100-cent dollars.-Chicago Tribune.