The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-10-26

witness to the stand, but only for the
| purpose of proving an admission. Here
is an item I find in the Duluth Evening
Herald of Aug. Is, 1898: THE wage con-
ditions have begun to affect the work on
| the county roads, and for the first time
in years 1t is impossible to get enough
labor to perform the work on hand. The
reason for this is that in town it Is easy
| to get LIS to 81 per day for common Ia
Dor, while for work on the roads only
$3.50 is offered. This condition is some
| thing new to the county officers who
| have this in charge. During the worst
part of the hard times some work was
done more for the purpose of giving men
employment than anything else"
That was the condition two years ago.
| say. let the laboring man in this COM
munity and this district, whether he
works in shop, or mill, or mine, or in
the woods, or upon the roads or streets
| or other public works, think of his con-
dition and surroundings in 1896 and COM
pare them with those which exist now.
Let him ask himself whether he had any
| work at all then, and If he had work,
what he was getting for it, and whether
he was not in daily dread that he would
! lose his job, and let him think how it is
in this year 1898. Let him remember how
the streets were then filled with idle men
and let him think about how 1t is now
and has been for more than year. More
work. more days of work, more money
for the work. Let any mill owner or
operative remember the summer and fall
of 1896 and compare them with the pres
ent time Our memories are short indeed
if we forget the great piles of lumber,
acres in extent, yes, hundreds of acres
in extent, unsold and unsought. Our
memories are short indeed If we forget
that all the mills had shut down long
before this and there were thousands of
men idle eating up their little savings
and earning nothing to replace them.
call now these operators and operatives
to testify. You are obliged to say, for it
is true, that those lumber piles have dis
appeared, and the new ones which have
taken their places are almost all already
sold, and at a
Reasonable Margin of Profit.
That almost every mill is going
night and day and will continue to go
to the very end of the saving season, or
as long as there is a log in the boom.
And so it was and is in the woods. More
work, more men employed; better wages
last winter than the winter before, and
the certain prospect that they will be
still better in the coming winter. And so
it was and is with the mines and miners.
Again, let us call up the wholesaler and
the jobber, and everyone of them will
tell the same story: No business that
could be called business in 1896: all they
can attend to in 1898. Beginning to ad-
vance slowly Immediately after the cleo
ton of Republican president, continu-
ing on and on until now with ever in
creasig volume andvelocity. Let us turn
even to the retailers, those to whom the
evidences of returning business are slow
est in coming, and they will tell you that
business is better and certain to be much
better in the near future. And then the
banks. In 1896, tumbling, crumbling;
money timid and hiding away: no loans,
no matter what the collateral or the
business. The borrower happy if he could
pay the interest; the banker glad enough
to get the interest and nothing more.
Now the vaults of the banks filed with
money, which they are glad to lend at
a reasonable rate of interest to any bona
fide enterprise offering a reasonable pros
pect of profit. And so it is in the agri-
cultural districts; the farmers have never
known better conditions than those which
have existed since the summer Of 1897.
And as 1t is here, SO it is throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Every
report of Bradstreet and Dun tells the
same story of an ever rising and expand
ing wave of a healthy and vigorous pros
perity.
So far as business and finance are con-
cerned, we hardly know except for the
splendid exhibition of our wealth and our
credit which it has given to the world,
that we have had a war; that we have
mustered in and are about to muster out
great army. Two hundred millions of
our bonds subscribed for more than six
times over, and not by the syndicates,
but by the people. More than 100000 600
taken by subscriptions of $500 and less,
and all taken by subscriptions of $1,000
and less. Where two years ago there
was gloom, stagnation, hopelessness, dis
content, today there is brightness, activ-
ity, hope, confidence Really, 1t is magi-
cal. And shall we now talk free silver?
Will any citizen of this republic even hint
that those bonds for which the best
money of the world was given shall be
paid in anything but the best money of
the world? Our own people have come to
the government and said, Here are two
hundred millions of money with which
to fight your battles, and If it is needed
we have for you a thousand millions
more" That money, when we received 1t,
was
Every Dollar as Good as Gold.
Will any man dare stand UP and say that
any policy shall be pursued that, any legis-
lation shall be had which might even in
the remotest degree, tend to debase the
money in which that loan is to be re-
turned. I don't believe it. You don't
believe it. And your votes will show 1t.
And so say again, 1 turn away from
that subject to those great problems with
which the momentous events Of the last
people face to face, problems that we
must meet, that we must solve, that we
will solve with honor and with complete
fidelity to our obligations to humanity, to
ourselves and posterity.
Lest it may be said that I have drawn
the picture in too high colors, let me read
you an extract from the New York Jour-
nal, and that ought to be good authority
for our silver friends. Here it Is: with
duty done and conscience at rest, Ameri-
ca lays aside her arms and prepares to
resume the interrupted labors of peace.
The energy that has destroyed the mill
tary and naval strength of nation of
100000 of people in three months, will
be turned toward the development Of our
expanding commerce and industry. In
the wake of a brief season of martial
glory will come the sunburst of a pros
perity such as we have never known be-
fore. The statements gathered by the
Journal from business men in every part
of the country all tell the same story
Presidents of chambers of commerce,
boards of trade, commercial associations
and similar bodies, scattered all over the
union from Massachusetts, to Texas, re-
port that the good times, whose nope
deferred has made our hearts sick for
g. 141%