Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-09-25

Are we, the producers, getting richer
or poorer as result of the gold stand
ard, the trusts, the war taxes, the
Dingley tariff, the Anglo-American
alliance, ETC.? A writer in the Single
Taxer of New York discusses the pro
and con of this question in an ap-
parently impartial manner, and fails to
ind the prosperity.
If the question were not one which
touches us all SO intimately, the dis
cussion now occupying the columns OF
the press as to whether we are or are
not enjoying an era of prosperity
would SAVIOR of the broadly humorous.
That conditions are more tolerable
than they were during the crisis of the
Last panic is universally admitted, but
whether this constitutes for them a
Just claim to the title prosperous is
gravely argued. Many of the "straws"
consulted to help the solution of the
| question are extremely dubious.
Reduction in the number of failures
proves nothing, for all the weak con-
Germs were wiped out during the period
of shortened credit. Neither does ac-
cumulation of bank deposits and cash
on hand. The organization of numer-
ous and colossal trusts cannot be re-
garded as much more than insurance
on the part of the main stockholders
against future depressed conditions.
But in the worst of times the people
whose condition is reflected by these
statements enjoy a very large share
OF comfort, If not of luxury. They be-
long to the great class who feel that
they are ruined" if compelled to work
for living or to contribute in any
active way for their own support.
1t is to labor conditions, then, we
must turn for true index of the gen.
eral situation. Here we are met by re-
ports of increases in wages all over
the country. Many of these statements
are contested, however, as only being
half-truths. From Johnstown comes
the statement on the word of a man
on whom we can absolutely rely, that
the so-called raise Is only a return to
the wage scale in force at the begin
ming OF 1897. From some of the weav-
ing districts news comes that the in
crease of wages means a reduction of
the force employed, the number of
looms which each operative is sup
posed to look after being nearly dou-
bled. This fact Is Offset by the state
ment of the employers that owing to
improvements in machinery there is no
more work involved in caring for five
looms now than for three under the
old conditions. OF course it necessi-
tates the employment of fewer hands,
some operatives are turned adrift, and
these go to join the threatening army
of the unemployed, whose existence, in
the words of the general master work
man of the knights of Labor, is the
greatest menace confronting labor to-
day.
From Nebraska comes the news that
labor is so scarce that the railroads ac-
tually have to avail themselves of
tramp labor, a report which needs ex-
PLANTATION in view of the commonly ac-
cepted belief that these men tramp,
beg and starve simply because they
prefer to do So and job as bank pres
ident would have no attraction for
them if they could not drink stale beer
out of tomato cans with serrated edges.
About year ago, when a section of
the press of the country had been talk
Ing up prosperity with a nearly equal
assiduity to that displayed in talking
1t down a couple of years previous,
western commercial man went East
with the idea that he could do a big
business in his line there because of
newspaper reports which informed
him of the rushing business which the
East was enjoying. When he got there
he found the eastern papers full of the
same reports about the section that he
came from. He concluded that from
that time on he would be guided by
conditions as he individually found
them.
Real prosperity cannot be said to
flourish in a community like that of
New York today when labor organiza-
tions report $1,000 members unem-
ployed. Who will attempt to estimate
the number of unorganized unem-
ployed? Conditions among the en-
ployes of the surface roads of New
York are such that a strike has taken
place, and yet nobody questions that
an army Of men stand ready, even at
the risk of their lives, to take the po-
sitions of the men who strike, so in
tolerable and unnatural is the condi-
tion of a large element of our popula-
ton. OF course after the men who re-
place the strikers have held the job for
a while the conditions will seem in
tolerable to them, too, and the men
whom they replaced, hungry and re-
vengeful, will be only too eager to get
back on any terms. And so with end
less variations the struggle goes on.
Here is a partial list of the strikes
that punctured the tires of our ma
tional prosperity in one week of July:
Street car strike at Cleveland, another
at Brooklyn and still another in New
York. Messenger and telegraph boys