The Panic Is Over, a Traveler Reports — and Seattle Is Ready for the Rush

W. R. Ballard, who has just returned from the East, where he has been for the past two months, says that wages are improving in most of the large manufactories there, some 300 firms having already granted their employes a raise of from 5 to 12 per cent, voluntarily, which certainly indicates that some great force is in operation to bring about better times. Many of the steel plants are running night and day.

"Bankers and business men in Pittsburg told me," said Mr. Ballard, "that the hard times were practically over with them. They say: 'The country has been like an old Irish gentleman on a big spree. It has been pretty sick, and we have all been sick with it. We have had to take our medicine, and not in capsules, either, but raw. For two long years we have had nothing but losses and failures, but now we are surely on the upgrade.' I heard many inquiries about Seattle and all with whom I talked were interested to learn of our resources and wished to have printed matter sent to them. We shall have a large immigration to Washington as soon as things are more settled."

Mr. Ballard saw D. H. Gilman in New York city and says that he is getting along well with his Snoqualmie power and steel works scheme, which it is now proposed to combine and carry through together.