1884-01-29asdd Hamilton's Newspaper in Conflict over Hard Times

       On January 29, 1884, the Hamilton Times had published an editorial which gave that newspaper’s readers the idea  that most factories were closed, or nearly, closed and that large numbers of workers in the city had been thrown out of work.

          The Spectator hotly disputed that claim :

“It is not true. The TIMES and its political friends desire such an impression to prevail, because distress and Reform are convertible terms, and they that that their profit is to be found only underneath great misery. In order to make it appear that such is the case, the grossest deception has been practised, and a painful suppression of facts.”¹

¹ “The City’s Poor”

Hamilton Spectator.   January 30, 1884.

The war of words between the Hamilton Times and the Hamilton Spectator began when newly-elected Hamilton Mayor J. J. Mason had publicly claimed that the marked increase in demand for city relief was caused by the increased number of mechanics who had been thrown out of work in the city recently.

The Hamilton Times alleged that the Spectator’s view on the matter were basically political in nature:

“The SPECTATOR hints that because the mayor declined to continue the haphazard system of granting relief that has hitherto been the rule, and made a tour of investigation among the homes of applicants, he has some personal or political object in in view.”¹ (Quote from Times editorial used in this Spectator editorial)

The Spectator denied the allegations of the Times, and proceeded to ridicule an article which had appeared in that newspaper on January 29, 1884. In the article, a Times reporter described the results of visits that he had made to twelve of the hundreds of factories in the city:

“ The foundries have shut down this winter for a short time, as they shut down every winter. The most of them are at work, and the rest will be opened in a few days.

“But men who have been earning from $12 to $20 a week are surely not among the applicants for municipal charity.

“Two planning mills, a furniture factory and an agricultural implement factory employ fewer hands than they employed last summer. The rest are working full time and apparently with full force.

“There is no evidence of hard times here – no cause for distress is revealed.”¹

The Spectator editorial writer then attacked the Times for ignoring the advances that Hamilton had made as a result of the introduction of the National Policy of protective tariffs”

“There are at least 2,000 more operatives employed in Hamilton today than were employed here before the National Policy came into operation. Immense numbers of houses have been built within the past three or four years, and hardly any are vacant.

“It is true that the brickyards are closed. Did the National Policy bring the frost and snow which make brick-making in winter impossible? Or does the TIMES think that bricks can be made in winter under free trade?

“There is no distress in Hamilton as we have said. The attempt to trade upon misery or to make political capital out of distress is so low an occupation that we blush to see a Hamilton journal attempt the task.”¹