Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-05-26
DEPRESSION IN BUSINESS.
Prosperity Boosted OF in Republican
Platforms Is Disproved by
Published Facts.

Published Facts.
People with small incomes, farmers,
clerks and working men, should husband
their esources and savings, for a period
of business depression would seem to be
impending. The Associated Press sent
out a warning On May 10, which was pub
lished in the evening newspapers of that
date and the morning newspapers of the
next day at the head of the financial
news. The report after stating the I'M
precedented collapse of the stock mar
ket says:
"The conviction is growing, however,
that the cause of the ~stagnation in the
stock market is deeper lying th1n any
temporary factor, and has to do with the
gradual emerging of the conditions of
general contraction in business and in
dustry in all directions"
Hard times always follow a boom,
and business depression means that the
man must seek the job and not the job
the man. The reduction in wages that
IOLhllCAICu ldoI ldlI VIII SulVly VIC UNIV
accentuated as the demand for labor be-
comes less and the railroads and other
great corporations reduce their work
ing force. Indeed, this reduction has al
ready commenced, for the New York
Central railroad has ordered all its de-
partments to cut down expenses and the
men employed to be reduced to the least
number necessary to carry on the BUSH
ness of the road. Other railroads will
likewise retrench, and this will cause
s%tagnation in the labor market, for
when 1.-THE man is seeking the job" he is
compelled to accept what the employer
offers, when he knows that thousands are
after it.
This breakdown of prosperity which
the protectionists boast is produced by
the protective tariff, is the outcome that
has been foretold by the democrats.
The goose is slowly dying that laid the
golden eggs, and the few have the gold
and the many will now have to suffer.
But the deception that the republican
leaders have practiced on their follow
ers is still being continued, for on the
same day that the Associated Press sent
out its pessimistic report on the bust
ness outlook, the republican state o n
vention of New Jersey in the platform
adopted, declared: THAT the protec-
tive tariff has brought the greatest pres
perity to capital and labor Repub-
lican platforms are VIGOROUSLY unreli-
able, and the idle men in the protected
industries, in the silk mills, the wooden
mills, and other factories running on
short time in New Jersey, the 60,00O
idle men in the textile field in Philadel-
phia alone, are facts that disprove the
reliability of the New Jersey platform
besides the general contraction in
business that the Associated Press an
noUnces.
Prosperity has vanished from so many
Industries, and so many homes are re-
stricting their expenses, that there
must be something wrong with the sys.
TEN that the republicans are boasting of
The New Jersey platform, however
told the truth about the prosperity the
tariff has brought to capital, if it hat
been frank enough to acknowledge tina
capital" meant the trusts. AS lorg a!
the trusts and combines can keep up thu
price of what they produce, they will
still have a measure of prosperity, bu
with falling wages and men out of work
even the trusts will suffer, for the ca
pacity of the people to consume is meas
ured by the amount of money they earn
In curtailing expenses, luXuries and thel
clothes are the first items cut off and tn
present depressed condition of the tex
tile market tells the tale. In the Journa
of Commerce, May IL, the headlines o
the article on the dry goods trade says
Buyers Still Cautious. mot Dispose,
!, to Commit Themselves to Liberal Pur
chases." "a Waiting Period on Al
Lines-General Belief That Were Price
! to Be Announced on Lower Basis Buy
, ing Would Be Sufficient to Caus
: Speedy Reaction-Many Lines Sellin
: at or Below Cost To-Day" The sam
newspaper on the same day publishe
a dispatch from Fall River, Mass, whic
. says: "The plan of ~rsnning the mill
:, four days a week which has been trie
' for the past five weeks has proved disaI
pointing. Some of the agents at leas
y strongly favored a reduction in wage.
even though it was pretty well under
stood that a general strike would folio,
=. such a move. Other manufacturers fave
:, a shutdown without a reduction. Their
is general apprehension over the situa
i" ton" A number of other dispatche
: in the same issue of the Journal of Com
{ merce indicate similar conditions
other places. Resolutions by reput
lican conventions, that prosperity reign
supreme, and the protective tariff is tb
= cause of it is mere bluff, when the fact
, show that business is depressed an
growing more so.
FRESH POLITICAL NOTES.