The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-12-29
THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW.

The year 1906 will be marked in history as
one Of, great disasters and notable cataclysms
Of Nature. The earthquake and fire in San
Francisco. followed by a similar appalling ex-
perience in Chile; the terrific typhoon and
tidal wave in China; the violent eruption Of
Mount Vesuvius, terribly destructive accidents
on railways and at sea, show the year just
closed one of exceptional fatality to thousands
upon thousands of lives and destructive of
property which cannot be computed. Great
wars, fortunately, have been lacking, but
the internal troubles in Russia maintained
throughout the civilized world condition of
strained interest, painful almost to the mere
Unlocking peoples as to those most directly
concerned
In the face of these adverse and trying con-
ditions there never was an era when prosperity
was SO evident, general and diffused. Especial
ly is this true of our own country. Never were
the products Of the soil so abundant and SO
much in demand at remunerative prices, nor
those Of the mine, the forest and the sea. The
transportation facilities of all sections are I'M
equal 10 the task of moving the heavy accumu-
lations OF Natures raw offerings, or the man.
ufactured commodities into which they have
been shaped. Labor everywhere is employed
and more sought after. There are no parades
of men without work; the tramp is genus of
the past, scarcely 10 be encountered on the
highways Of travel or detected Sinking along
its byways. Withal-with the ever-increasing
demand for labor, skilled and untrained-have
come advances in wages which make the Amer
lean workman far and away the best paid-as
he has ever been the most intelligent, progress
sive and initiative in the worlds great armies
ofindustry.
And, accompanying the achievement OF ma
terial success, there has been peace. content,
comfort throughout our land. No devasting
plaques have swept over it, no isolated COM
munity even has been visited by pestilence,
and certainly none by famine.
May the years to come continue to our fair
and goodly land the blessings which have thus
been signally hers
But the New Year is, rather than season of
retrospect. a time for anticipation. The aus
pices are all bright for a long continuance OF
the happy situation of our people, and it is
only by rash conduct, by ignoring sound BUSH
ness principles, by public and private extrava-
gance, by wild speculation and crazy ventures,
that the rosy hue which suffuses our atmcs-
phere may be changed to blackness and gloom.
The sound, practical business sense of our
leaders and legislators ought to steer us clear
of disasters such as have met us in times gone
by. Notwithstanding our enormous growth in
production and commerce. it would seem that
we are only on the Threshold of ampler indus
trial achievements. Enterprise is alert, science
daily lends its aid and new light is even being
shed on the processes of agriculture, of manu-
features and the arts whilst the development
of mines, the multiplication of the facilities OF
commerce in the way of extended railways and
enormously enlarged terminal accommoda.
tions, promise that 1907 will keep pace in
progress and accomplishment with the years
that have gone before.
In all its successes may the friends of THE
UNION have an Astounding sharel