The Monday After: Remembering McKinley's 'full dinner pail'

"IS PROSPERITY RETURNING?

Monday, Aug. 29, 2022

STANDING HEAD: The Monday After

HEAD:

DIGITAL SUBHEAD:American economy prospered during President William McKinley's administration.

Gary Brown

Special to The Canton Repository

USA TODAY NETWORK

"IS PROSPERITY RETURNING?

That's the economic question that a bold headline in The Sunday Repository posed 125 years ago.

"Industrial Notes About Concerns In Canton and Vicinity and In All Parts Of the United States," another headline at the top of the Repository's front page answered on Aug. 22, 1897, adding that factories and businesses throughout the county and across the country were "Showing Increased Activity."

The Dueber-Hampden Watch Company was showing especially prosperous manufacturing activity, another headline added, and the business had the sales to support it.

"GOOD NEWS FROM THE BIG WATCH FACTORY," the newspaper reported atop a story that would go into more specifics about the manufacturing boom. "It Is Running Now In the Case Department As It has Not Run Before in August For Years, And the Hampden Factory Is Gradually Falling In Line."

Other industries in the area also were emerging from the recession that had plagued the country earlier in the 1890s, not quite two years after William McKinley − Canton's favorite son − had been elected president of the United States, and less than a year-and-a-half since the chief executive had been sworn into office.

"The Plant Of the Canton Bridge Company is Crowded," another headline added. "Would Run on Double Time if Orders for Metal Could Be Filled."

Canton's noted brick factories similarly were showing signs of ecponomic recovery, the newspaper reported.

"Big Shipments of Paving Brick Going Out of Canton," an additional headline told readers. "The Railroads Note Improvement in Freight Business."

McKinley's promise of prosperity for the country seemed close to being fulfilled early in his first term, so much so that a slogan for his campaign for a second term turned into "Four More Years Of A Full Dinner Pail."

Climbing out of a recession

An article entitled "William McKinley − Economic recovery and foreign affairs," posted on a page at the website presidentialprofiles.com, details the part McKinley played in the economic upturn late in the 1890s.

"Once he had assumed the responsibilities of office, McKinley immediately turned his attention to measures for assuring economic recovery," the article began. "The tariff received first consideration, and even before his inauguration McKinley had worked with leaders of the House to secure legislation that would be acceptable."

Nelson Dingley, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, submitted a bill bearing his name "that did not drastically raise the duties of the Wilson-Gorman Tarrif of 1894." It quickly passed the house in the spring of 1897, but the Senate increased the tariff rates, "and in its final form it became the highest tariff in American history."

"McKinley had reservations, but he nevertheless signed the bill into law on 24 July 1897," the article said. "One reason he did is that the provision for reciprocity trade agreements, though inadequate, promised an opportunity to bring the United States into an international economic system from which the world might secure extraordinary rewards.

"The distance McKinley had moved from protectionism to market expansion became apparent during the summer of 1897, when he told the Cincinnati Commercial Club that in addition to serving economic ends, good trade ensured goodwill. 'It should be our settled purpose to open trade wherever we can,' he argued, 'making our ships and our commerce messengers of peace and amity.'"

Apparently much peace and amity was emerging between many countries in the world during the summer of 1897, following a long period of economic hardship.

Financial panics in 1884 and 1890 were followed by "one of the most severe financial crises in the history of the United States in 1893, according to federalreservehistory.org.

"Industrial production fell by 15.3% between 1892 and 1894, and unemployment rose to between 17% and 19%," said the website history. "After a brief pause, the economy slumped into recession again in late 1895 and did not fully recover until mid 1897."

Recovery signaled in Repository

The beginning of that recovery was reported in glowing terms by the Repository in late summer of that year.

"It is August," the newspaper began. "Generally everybody in business finds the month dull. That is the condition one generally expects to find in business this time of year."

Instead, the newspaper found, "some Canton factories are booming."

"The big Dueber case works are running as they have not run in August in years, and the Hampden watch works are gradually falling in line," the Repository reported.

The renewed activity of businesses seemed obvious to the Repository's writer.

"Saturday the public square and the streets about the market house, and the hotels, where farmers in Canton for trade stop, were crowded as they seldom are in August.

Other area factories were observed to have similar increases in their business, despite the traditional dog days of the summer.

"We are way ahead of last year," John Reed, manager of Canton Bridge Company, told a Repository reporter. "All the traveling men who call on us tell us about the same thing. And our representatives on the road corroborate the story. If we could get our metal orders filled we could run on double turn now, because of the large number of orders booked ahead.

"Municipalities have no trouble in floating good securities now for public improvements," Reed noted. "The outlook for a continuing rush of orders was never better."

Other factories fall in line

There was "another remarkable sign of the times" at a "bustling" Cleveland, Canton & Southern Railway freight station, according to the Repository's article.

"Indeed we do feel the coming of better times," said an agent for the railway. "Yes, the coal strike has affected our business. ... But, with those mines closed and no August shipments from them, we have already done more freight business from Canton station than during the whole of last August, with the coal shipments included then."

Stark County's brick manufacturers were finding similar success, despite the coal miners' strike.

"Oh, yes, we are shipping now," said E.D. Kellinger of the Imperial Brick Company. "I never saw brighter promises for our business, and you will understand that this opinion is not merely a prospective one, when you know that we have just cleared our yard of over a million pavers accumulated before the coal strike set in. We expect to run our works all winter, which we have not done for years, and the general indications so far as I can learn from other dealers is equally promising."

So, optimism for the economy was coming from "the ground up," literally, observed the newspaper, and it reached the sky.

"Manager Ed Langabaugh, of the Berger company, says business shows a continuing improvement," the Repository reported. "Senator Snyder, of the Canton Steel Roofing Company, considers the outlook more encouraging than for many months past."

And other area businesses echoed the report of dramatic increases in business activity.

"The Aultman company have not been able to fill all their orders for road-making machinery," the Repository reported. "The volume of business in stoneware was evidenced by a response from the Canton Stoneware company, which has thus far doubled its sales for the corresponding time last year."

Signs pointed toward favorable future

Such increases in volume of activity was being reported from many manufacturers elsewhere in the country, said the Repository's article, and the recovery was spread out in a variety of businesses and trades.

Special optimism could be raised from the report of the Bucher & Gibbs Co., manufacturers of farm equipment, which was, "according to the statement of officers, doing the largest volume of business in the history of the establishment."

Also encouraging was a graphic printed adjacent to the article in the Repository, which visually compared Nebraska's Wheat Yield for 1897 − 40,000,000 bushels − to the 555-foot high Washington monument.

"The Great Wheat Crop of 1897," a headline in the graphic began, "(serves as) an object lesson of the extraordinary productiveness of this extraordinary land."

Wheat production and farming in general, you see, is tied to a strong and sustainable economic recovery. The American economy is tied to the land, and grows from the field, some say. And, coupled with increased mining activity, wheat prices and exports had rebounded.

The economy's future looked strong.

"From the sample reports it is not difficult to predict that the merchants and business men of Canton will soon begin to feel the effects of steadier and increasing payrolls among the manufacturing establishments of the city, while the farming commuinity has already begun to increase the volumes of money in circulation in many local mercantile establishments.

Although there still were some hard times endured, McKinley's promised prosperity seemed assured.

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: Remembering McKinley's 'full dinner pail'