Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-05-16
UNIVERSAL PROSPERITY.
President Mckinley sees Only the
Best 4 d of Things While
Touring the Country.

The president in his speech at New
Orleans congratulated the people
upon sharing 'in the universal pros
perity and contentment so character
istic at this time of every part of our
common country"
There is no doubt that the comfort
and elegance of the surroundings of
the president, seeing nothing but the
best side of the towns he is visiting,
gives him the idea that all is richness
and comfort, and yet on the same May
day there were strikes inaugurated
in dozens of cities. The very train
men who have the care of the sump-
tuous free train with which the rail-
road companies are entertaining Pres
ident Mckinley are on the verge Of
striking for reasons that they think
compel them to do so. But then Pres
ident Mckinley have his eye on the
Wall street boom and as nearly all
those who accompanying are addicted
to the ticker habit, he doubtless hears
hourly of vast prosperity, for of
course those travelling with a pres
ident on an expansion and prosperity
tour must all be bulls and big winners.
From another part of the country
m a very different tale and from
one of the greatest manufacturing
cities at that. The textile trade which
suffers periodically from some dis
temper peculiar to itself, says the
Philadelphia Record, is again in a
state of ~stagnation. This is a favor
able time, therefore, for renewed
speculation as to the cause of those
recurring "slumps" in this industry.
The general industrial situation seems
to be good, and yet the textile bust
ness is at a practical standstin in so
far as profit taking is concerned.
Many mills have been working only
part time; large numbers of hands are
idle, and although an improvement is
momentarily looked for, and has ac-
tually come in some of the factories,
trade is generally recognized to be in
a very unsatisfactory state.
While the reaction affects the in
dustry in all parts of the country,
such troubles always strike home
with particular force in a great tex
tile center like Philadelphia. Inac-
tivity in the mills means a great deal
to labor, and when the workInen are
not earning wages regularly the gen.
eral trade of the city is depressed.
The reasons which are given for the
present state of things are as
numerous as are the men from whom
explanations are sought. There are
hints as to overproduction; under
consumption because of warra win
tiers, competition lin cotton goods)
from southern mills, which ave lost
the Chinese trade; the high price of
cotton and wool; the instability of
prices; too little protection, and the
lack of foreign outlets for the prod
ucts of our looms. Some Philadelphia
carpet manufacturers still believe
that their trade is being injured by
Chinese mattings.
The chief complaints come from
the wooden and carpet factories,
which need a plentiful supply of raw
materials at steady prices. The wool
en- manufacturer who looks forward
t o a time when he can secure foreign
markets for his goods. knows that
there is no hope for hat so long as
he must pay protective prices for his
fiber. No American manufactured
products can be sold abroa in COM
petition with the products OF other
countries when our manufacturers
have to pay higher prices for their
raw material. Bonuses to western
sheep growers in a prohibitory tariff
on clothing woods, and to h China
mar who makes cheap mattings IN
a tax on carpet woods, which woods
we cannot raise in this country, are
not making Philadelphia manufac-
turers or their employees very happy