The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1910-04-15

Indications Point to Prosperous Year

In the last thirty days conditions the
country over have improved so much
that everyone has taken on more
cheerful air. The street car strike in
Philadelphia, with the possibility of a
sympathetic strike involving thousands
of laboring men, is, so far as its effect
on the public is concerned, thing of
the past. The sympathetic strike did
not develop. The great strike among
the railroad men, involving six hundred
thousand men, has happily been
settled by compromise effected by ar
bitration. The railroads increasing the
wages of their employees, the amount Of
the increase in the aggregate running
way up into the millions, not only
settles one OF the most difficult prob
lens, one which no man could see the
end of, but enables the workingmen to
meet the increased cost of the necessi-
ties of life, and enables the American
workingman to keep up that standard
of living to which he has been accus-
toned, but it will also put into the
channels of trade such an increased
volume Of money as will produce far
reaching results for good.
The example of the Pennsylvania
Railroad company, in increasing the
wage of every employee receiving less
than $500 per month ten per cent, was
followed by other roads.
Referring now to our own section of
the country, the great and growing
northwest, in which the prosperity OF
the numbering interests cuts very
large figure, it may truthfully be said
that not in three years has the outlook
been so good. The demand for lum-
Der in the last thirty days has been
most gratifying. Every mill in the
country reports very active demand
for lumber. The coast mills are run
ming to their full capacity. Many mills
that have been idle or running on short
time are now running with a full force
when they can get men. From Idaho
comes the report that so strong is the
demand for lumber that prices have
already been advanced from one to
three dollars per thousand. Our own
mill is loading five and six cars every
day with an increasing demand.
From every quarter comes the cry
for help, more help. In this immedi-
ate section there is a shortage of help
on the ranches. The mill, also, is
short of help. Considerable railroad
building is under way in the state of
Washington, which probably accounts
for this shortage.
A constantly increasing number Of
homeseekers are finding their way to
this state, and land sales and home
making is once more topic of current
comment.
Reports from the fruit and grain
sections of the northwest were never
more rosy and promising. The Big
Bend wheat acreage is larger and more
promising than for many years. 1t now
seems improbable that injury could
come to the fruit crop of the Wenat-
chez valley. A full crop and largely
increased number of trees coming into
bearing will bring about such an era
of prosperity as was never known.
There is good reason for believing
that Leavenworth and the country sur
rounding it will develop more rapidly
than in any year in its past. A number
of land sales have been made in the
past few weeks. more than have been
reported in the Echo, and every sale
means a new settler, new home and
more land going into cultivation. AS
one purchaser remarked, land that costs
two or three hundred dollars is too val
uabe too lie idle. 1t must go into
cultivation and be made productive.
To sum the matter up, the present
outlook for 1910 is very encouraging.
All indications point to a prosperous
year.