The Manning Times

McKinley Prosperity

The failures for May, as compiled from Dun's Review, number 947, as compared with 581 last year and 917 in the "calamitous" year of 1896. The number for May, 1900, is the largest ever known in that month since the records have been kept. The records for the two succeeding months have been equally significant, as indicating the full meaning of the McKinley prosperity. President Gary of the Federal Steel Trust, who certainly has no motive for misrepresenting the facts on that side, said in a recent statement of the iron and steel industry: "The demand is not equal to the production, and the latter should be curtailed until conditions change." Production is being curtailed at a rate extremely disastrous to the interests of workingmen. And this in spite of the pressure which, it is everywhere agreed, is being brought to bear upon the trust managers by their friends, Hanna and McKinley, to keep their works open if possible until after the election. The trust men are good Hanna Republicans and would be glad to comply with this campaign request, but there is a limit even to the powers of a trust which has fattened upon the abnormal profits of a short season of artificial prosperity. The trust men are doing the best they can, but the truth cannot be concealed that the bottom is out of the McKinley prosperity, and the end is near at hand.