The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-27
PROSPERITY AND
 THE CAMPAIGN

ILL UnsEkf ntOEv
 It was once t.axiomatic''- in Anefi ! can politics that the administration | in power was strengthened by business | prosperity and injured by business | diversity. In part this was discredit- {, ed four years ago Notwithst anding 1 the severe financial panic of 1907, the i Roosevelt adninistra ton so far re- tained it's popularity that it's head was see the people confirm his choice by million plurality.
 There has been panic during tine Taft administration. And so far has it been from spelling ruin in trade and industry. that this administrations last year is proving to <be coincide1 va1s of industrial and commercial ac- tivity the country has experienced in 1 3. generation. It used to be a test of 1 an administrat lions success that it I should draw to close in a blaze of prosperity. Mark Hanna carried the i election of 1900 by the argument which 1 he called 'tfhe full dinner pail. There l was no withstanding it. The truth is that McKinley's last year was no more 1 | Tafts. Why should Taft get the bene- 1 fit Of it Mckinley did?
 l The years cereal crops are almost phenomenal. The farmers of the West CTS, probably, known in history. The number of auoon1 obiIes to be sold i'll I valleys next spring will Stagger the r imagination. Rising prices make the 1 producers paradise, and the farmers not only have great crops, but the pr1- ces they are receiving are correspond l ingly saLtisfact ctory compared with the prices received in the Ian years of pcpl1lism and prairie discontent twen- 1 ty years ago. l Labor in the East is employed to the last man able and willing to work,
 while leading industries report a grow l ing scarcity of WorkInen that must 1 have the effect of raising the scale of
 wages to levels recently regarded as
 impossible The president of the At
 chison railroad in the West reports
 that in the region traversed by his
 ceeds the supply" The head of the I Hartman lines says that "a. great
 deal of our work is retarded by lack 1 of labor The great Baldwin locomoz l tive works cannot hire workers enough l to meet it's requirements, and the steel trust is handicapped in filling orders | d center of the cotton texeile industry. there 51 competition among the mills 1 for weavers, one mill having raised | the weaving prices. it is paying 3 or 10 per cent. in order to attract the 1 workers 1t desires.
 The Iron Age today announces pig-iron trade Prices are going up. 1 Sales of steel billets for 1913 delivery
 are on "a prodigiors scale The agri- l cultural implement makers find that l the demand for next year promises to
 be beyond pdeoedent.'' Car works are l liar behind'' on orders. Steel rail ba1y1ne is trennealdol1 ol1s-8oo, GOO tons be- 1 ing already booked for next year. For l the first time in years this September l has witnessed sales of iron and steel
 goods abroad At prices higher than those received at home
 The stock market now reflects the
 burst of new industrial activity which
 most certainly distinguishes the sec
 ond half of the year 1912. The rise in prices of securities which set in de money, and we find the speculative leaders of the market up, on an aver age, some six eight points in short space of ten days. With steel conaon at 7S, a point reached Tuesday, that stock is back almost to the level which it held so long prior to the | heavy decline which year ago began on the first serious intinlatfons of the government prosecution of the truSG fleets the probable result of the presi- dentfal election, it is certain that the stock market has become bullish, and il may probably will stay bullish, during the remainder of this cam paign. It was a maxim of J. P1erpont Morgan's father, a shrewd, wise hnan-
 is bear On the economic future, of the United States will "go broke. The
 stock market evidently takes that
 view of the situation, regardless of l politics and the fate of presidential
 Viii Taft be benefited in his pros
 
 Iprosperfty which is distinguishing the
 closing period Of his administration?
 No one can doubt thaf he would pc | immensely benefited if his party were still united. He can at least say that, with all his faults and ineptitudes. his policies have deprived no man Of , work have sfrangIed no legitimate in
 dustry have 1essened the wealth-pro- ~ducing power of the nation in no de- gree wha tsoever There are nlgner ,.
 to his belly, but ordinarily appeals of
 this sort make votes because business
 interests and wage-earners are sus. ceptible to the practical argument of . .1et well enough alone.
 It is Impossible to predict what eff feet business revival is to have on the | | presidential campaign owing to the ex- | | traordinary conditions prevailing. It , , has already been pointed out Ehau
 panic of 1907 and the business depres-
 sion that followed it, even to the ex-
 tent. that he was able to place MT. popularity, in like manner now sur, : vive the prosperity which has burst I upon the last months of his presiden.
 t:al term, leaving him befeft even of
 the most fundamental advantage . which political experience has taught : US to consider sinseparable from hhe . government of the day2 The answer I to this question largely depends on the a possible development of reaction T against Mr. Roosevelt during the next . 40 days within the limits of the old
 Republican party
 Hitherto the political leader Of re e volt and the apostle of discontent . has been soverv Inclined in this country f when the forces Of Nature speeding . | l1p the wheels of industry, have fought . l a against him. In MT. Rooseveits ease
 l the support of those very worthy hu-
 1nanitarian people drawn to him by
 the many excellent social reforms he g has advocated is assured under any . conceivable econ onic circurnsta ances : ! but the masses of wage earners-what
 of them? Are they now so susceptible S5 | hi aopoaI as they would have beer