The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-23
TOLEDO AS INDEX
 ID THE SITUATION
Was One of CenIers of Great
 Bicycle Boom
MANY MEN OUT OF WORK
Considerable Number of the Big Fac tories Are Holding Down Their Fore es-cost of Living
 Not Stationary.

| ditions in Toledo are unique. This city was one of the great centers of the bi. | cycle boom. Five or six large bicycle | factories were here working night and day at the time the craze for bicycles | pervaded the United States four or five years ago. With the subsistence of that | fad, all of these factories were practical ly forced out of business The men lost their jobs and a general state of con sternation pervaded those who had pre- viously been engaged in the industry.
 But the decline of the bicycle was fol- lowed by the development of the automo- bile, and now large number of men who were formerly employed in making bi- cycles devote their energies to the man. ufacture of self-propelllng vehicles. The old plant of the bicycle trust here has been converted into an automobile factory and the PopeToledo works is now one of the leading establishments of the city.
 This is typical story of how new industries have supplanted dying indus tries in this active locality. In num- Der of the most important lines of actiy- ity in this city some new development has created a condition of what may be called abnormal demand. which has had a very favorable effect upon the business interests of Toledo. This city has produc- ed a number of inventions during the last year which are calculated to revolu- tionize certain important manufacturing interests. These facts place Toledo in a peculiarly favorable light when it's indus- trial and labor conditions come to be estimated in comparison with those of the country at large.
 ToIedo's Prosperity in the Past.
 Add to the foregoing facts the circum- stance that in the great depression of 1893 and 1894, the city of Toledo with stood the storm better than almost any other city in the United States. Not a bank has failed in this city within the memory of the oldest inhabltant. The only financial institution which may be said to have gone to the wall was forced out of business through the dedication of an official who is now serving his term in the peniteniary. Toledo's finan- cial condition, therefore can be safely asserted to be about as strong compara- lively to the size of the city as that of any other great manufacturing center in the whole United States.
 Ask the patriotic and optimistic citizen of Toledo what general conditions are in his city and he will reply that they are mot abnormal" In the next breath he will tell you, however, that there is not such boom in business as there was a year and a half ago.
 "A large number of men are out of work here" said Thomas Rumsey, head of the central labor union of Toledo, to your correspondent. "The number of men without employment is probably twice as great as 1t was a year ago. consider able number of the factories are holding down their forces and working on short time. In some cases business is picking up, but it is far from being what 1t ought to be at this time of year"
 MT. Rumsey is distanty removed from being a pessimist. He was here during the panic of 1893, and he states frankly that conditions are not nearly so bad now as they were then, but he declares that laboring people are very much wor- ried over the tendency which is becoming manifest on the part of some of the larg est manufacturing establishments to hold down their operations and do a sort of ''hand-to-mouth' business. He says that the laboring man will in the coming pres idential election voice a protest against an economic condition which renders the effort to make a living so much more severe than it was four or five years ago.
 During this period wages in the city have been almost stationary There have been a few strikes, but they have usually come to little. In many lines of business within the last few months strikes have been threatened, but employers have been able to show the workingmen that times were not of sufficient prosperous char acter to make it possible to grant the slightest increase in wages Hence, the laboring men have continued to work at the old figures. This was notably true of a recent movement among the team sters in this city . demand higher pay.
 The Cost of Living Not Stationary.