The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-02-21

The report Of the Manufactures COM
mttee presented to the Board of Trade
last night raises an issue of vital i'm
portance to the people of Scranton.
Throughout the country the business
skies are clearing; money is again
abundant; interest rates are low; con-
fldence is restored: new markets are
yielding profitable returns to American
enterprise, and the time is ripe for the
inauguration of a grand era of indus
trial progress. During this general ad-
vance is Scranton to slide backward
or go ahead?
There are signs of a material i'm
provement in the anthracite coal situa-
tion in the near future, and this is
cause for genuine rejoicing; but the
ultimate future of this city dare not
depend upon one industry or upon two
industries. Never has this truth been
more vividly impressed upon the pub
lie consciousness than during the past
five years Of dullness in coal and iron,
when the inhabitants of this commun-
ity have been saved from business
the employment to lasor given in our
silk mills. woolen mills and other di
verslfied industries. without these
varied enterprises called into exist
ence by Board of Trade influences, we
could not have weathercd the general
depression. They have literally been
our salvation. Business prudence,
business self-protection, in other
words, plain common sense demands
that we get more of them, as we can
if we will try.
There are wealthy men enough in
Scranton with capital now lying idle to
bring hither at once a number of valu-
able new industries IL they will give
the matter their intelligent attention
and realize that unless the city is thus
reinforced its realty values will sooner
or later decline, it's banks will eventu-
ally cease TO be centers of handsome
profit and retrogression VIII take place
au along the line 1t is true that local
capital is just now inclined to fight
shy of industrial investments. 1t is
also true that money invested in in
dustries does not yield as quick a re-
turn as in some other directions in
volving successful speculation. But
men of means whose homes are here,
whose property is here, whose sources
of income are here must realize that
their original investments cannot in
definitely continue to be profitable un-
der a condition which subjects the
great mass of the laboring element to
the fluctuations of the coal trade or to
the ups and downs of the steel rail
business. Decay is the inexorable al
tentative to growth. The stores cam
not increase their sales, the men who
rent office rooms or homes cannot pay
higher prices, wage earners cannot buy
or build homes of their own, the banks
cannot expand their safe loans and
discounts unless the general volume Of
local business is gradually augmented
by the steadying activities of diversi-
fled new Industries with enlarging pay
rolls and growing incentives to in
creased investment. To stand still is
to set in motion the agencies of ulti-
mate disaster.
This city, we firmly believe, has
reached another turning point in it's
history, If money made in Scranton
is to be sent out of town for invest
ment or deposit and the establishment
of new home industries is not to be
hereafter encouraged, a time will come
when the tide of growth must ebb,
strewing the shore with wreckage. On
the contrary, if advantage is taken of
the favorable general conditions to
build enlarged foundations for home
prosperity the impulse toward a great
er and a better Scranton will soon be-
come irresistible. At this pivotal mo-
ment let the moneyed men Of our city
ask themselves in all seriousness,
Which path can we afford to traveI?"