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Printed on cornhusk paper... By & for the unemployed...
Printed on cornhusk paper... By & for the unemployed...
Item # 702127
January 01, 1894
HARD TIMES, San Francisco, California, January, 1894
* Printed on thick corn husk paper
Likely a short-lived newspaper--this is the volume 1, number 2 issue--interesting for both the focus and the paper upon which it is printed.
As for the latter, this appears to be a cornhusk paper made from ground corn husks, is a golden color and of very thick stock.
As noted on page 2: "This paper is the organ of no man or set of men. It may be safely accused of being the voice of labor...There is no excuse for any man going hungry...This paper is published for the benefit of the unemployed. It is not sold by boys or news agents...Issued and sold by the unemployed...".
Four pages, some archival mends inside, nice condition.
AI notes: Hard Times was a short-lived, labor-oriented newspaper published in San Francisco during the mid-1890s, emerging in the wake of the devastating Panic of 1893 and the deep economic depression that followed. Issued irregularly and supported by reformers and unemployed-workers’ groups, the paper focused on the severe hardships facing laborers, denouncing monopolies—especially the Southern Pacific Railroad—while championing relief efforts, public-works proposals, and broader Populist economic reforms. Its pages reported on joblessness, wage struggles, street demonstrations, and Coxey-inspired protest marches, blending investigative pieces with fiery editorials aimed at exposing corruption and advocating for structural change. Never a large commercial daily, Hard Times operated with limited resources and a small circulation, and like many crisis-born reform papers of the 1890s, it disappeared after only a brief run as the decade’s economic conditions slowly stabilized.
Category: Post-Civil War
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