The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-15
BIG BOOM IN IRON.
Local Manufacturers Tell The Spy Story
Of Unparalleled Prosperity Great
Gain in Both Foreign and Do
nestle Trade Plenty Of
Work and Money.

Prosperity has come into Worcester
on a tidal wave and registered for a
long stay at every industrial estab-
lishment in the city. In the iron and
machine business especially, there
never was anything like it.
Manufacturers say that there has not
been such rush of orders, or a more
general employment of skilled me-
clianics than at the present time. Bush
ness is in vastly better condition than
it has been for a decade, according to
conservative business men, and they
( DO not look for any cessation of pros
perity within the immediate future.
The industrial sky is unfiawed by even
the semblance of a cloud.
Merchants feel the business renais-
sanee. for the people have money to
spend, and they are spending it with a
free hand. For years thousands of
workingmen and their families have
been merely existing, after the hand to
mouth fashion. Today they are living
in the truest sense of the word, and
are enjoying luxuries as we'll as neces-
saries Of life.
The boom is now in its meridian
splendor. There is heard the hum and
roar Of industry on all sides. Most
shops are choked with orders, while
many Of the larger concerns afe work
ing overtime with a view to catching
up with the demands of the markets.
Some manufacturers have so many
orders that they are forced to tell eager
customers that they must date their
orders ahead if they wish to have them
filed
Factories that were a long time idle,
With closed shutters and cold, rusty
boilers, now show all the evidences of
life Dense smoke issues from the
chimneys, the wheels of industry are
smith described by Dickens, the en-
ployees sing at their work.
Indirectly, manufacturers will tell
you, as they told The Spy reporter yes
terday, that the war with Spain helped
Business, but for the most part they at
tribute the awakening to the reaction
against the stagnation Of the last few
Years To men who have felt the keen
edge Of poverty through enforced idle
ness, 1t is like a resurrection from the
dead.
The greater number of orders that
come to Worcester manufacturers are
to supply the home market, but there
is. too, a large increase in the foreign
trade. 1t is notable that save in the
way of agricultural implements and
manufactured goods, there is but little
business coming to Worcester from our
new Anthem possessions, and scarcely
any business of any description from
the Philippines.
Such products as looms and equip
ments of machinery for mills do not
find their way to any extent to the
late colonies Of Spain, for in those re-
gions manufacturing is almost wholly
A
however, 1t is believed that there will
be radical change, and that Worces-
ter will get its share of the orders.
Worcester is more fortunate in a
business way, manufacturers say, than
most cities Of its size throughout the
country, owing to the almost limitless-
ness Of its scope as an industrial
centre. They make everything here,
from horse radish to the most finished
products in the iron, steel, wire and
textile trades Invariably at every shop
where The Spy reporters called yester-
dav to get a line on the situation,
skilled mechanics and laborers, many
from other places, called and applied
for work.
1t was noteworthy that there was a
big demand for skilled mechanics, and
Numbers of them secured employment,
& but of common laborers the supply is
always in excess Of the demand.
It is this diversity of industry that
Nives Worcester such an immense ad-
Vantage over Lynn, Lowell and other
manufacturing centres, and sends the
population of the heart Of the common
wealth up with leaps and bounds.
& The butcher, the baker, the clothing
healer, the Furniture men, the manager
of the great dry goods houses, in fact
merchants Of every grade and degree
have the same story to tell. Times are
GOOD with the mechanics, and that al
lEways means that times are good with
themselves
Interviews with prominent manufac-
tufers and others who know the situa-
tion thoroughly follow:
Prentice Bros, manufacturers OF
rlachinists' tools on Cambridge street,
have no recollection In their long bust
ness career of a time when business
was better. They have heaps upon
heaps of orders, and were recently
forced to enlarge their works to keep
up with the demands of the market.
superintendent Whittemore told The
Spy reporter that not for eight years,
at least. has business had anything like
thu boom 1t Is experiencing today. It
a simply phenomenal, and there is no
ihdication that Il is likely to suffer a
ffnttion. Every sign at hand points
the INDEX finger in the direction OF even
greater prosperity. Prentice Bros. are
not working overtime, but every inch
III Nphce in their big establishment
MlINfR there is room for a skilled me-
tnH1sc is occupied, and IL is a veritable
hive pf industrial activity.
rNe boom In the machine shops has
been Followed by rise in the price Of