Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-07-02
flor tic farmer,
A WORD OF CAUTION.

The change which has taken pace
in the price of grain during the last win
Ter, is but one of a series of reductions
in prices of farming and manufactured
products which are consequent upon
overtrading and unhealthy stimulation
of prices. Peace has been declared in
Europe and the soldiers and all that
large body Of men engaged in transport
ing and manufacturing supplies for the
Crimea armies have most of them ceased
to be the of the products Of
other mems labors, and will now again
become producers. California instead
of looking to the old States for supplies
Of bread stuf1s, now raises a surplus to
sell. All these things must have a ten
dency to reduce prices, and produces a
scarcity iof money. The Pittsburgh
Gazette in commenting upon an article
from the Chicago Tribune says: We
find in that paper a timely word of eau.
ton to both farmers and merchants,
which they will do well TO heed, grow
ing out of the new condition of things
which The low prices Of grain will in
augurate, or they will be involved in
series Of disasters from which they will
be extricated only after years of labor
and the sacrifice of millions. The whole
country has been o~vertrading with Eu-
rope, and is now paying a balance against
it at the rate of a million and a half in
coin every week; and the West has been
overtrading tn the Est in the same
ratio. The strange spectacle is now pre-
scented Of an increase of coin in the New
York banks while we are shipping TO
from two 10 four millions a month
more than the California receipts; tile
difference being more than made up By tie
drain Of gold from the interior to tie sea-
board. The balance of trade is now
against the West, and will con
.inue so all summer; and, with the low
prices hat must prevail'fo for agricultural
products, how is the West to catch up
the people moderate their future
purchases BY their probable means >
But to the article in the Tribune:
"FOr the past two years, owing to
which are now well understood,
mt sCkich has ceased 10 operate, there was
title of over trading, or Of loss in specu-
alton. But the climax has been reach
ID; the topmost round on the ladder has
,een attained: in fact, the descent has
begun.
Tie real surplus wealth Of the country
S just what the country has to sell.
With this fact before them, and all the
While acted upon, and with the other
act-the worth of that surplus is regu.
ated by the prices it commands-full in
lew, the merchant will have little fear
f going wrong. But for him who
magines that the events of last year are
D be repeated in the year now upon US
all he has to do is to buy all his
.redit will command, to sell to whomso-
yer has credit TO purchase, TO collect
asily and to pay without trouble-is
seed that will ripen in bankrupt
y. As long as wheat was $3.50 a
and corn was quick at IS t. 90
ents, and all cher agricultural products
'ore a proportionate price, there was lit
.e danger of overtrading-of buying
lOre than the country had means to pay
Or. And now, were we not in a transit
on state-passing from a period of ex-
essive stimulation to a more normal and
over condition-this warning would not
e necessary. But it is hard for the
merchant who sold, last year four hum
red thousand dollars worth of goods,
D content himself this year with doing
ess. 1t is hard for the farmer, who
twelve months ago, ran in debt
Or the eighty lot adjoining his
Iomestead, and paid for it out of his
rep, to believe that the crop now in the
round will not enable him to do the
he same thing in the twelve month 10
ONE. 1t is hard for all who have in
in iuxuries and extravagances
n the firth of good times, high prices
uccesful speculations AMI easily accu-
riches, to retrench-buy caIicoes
lstead of silk, cotton rather than linen,
or maple instead ofrose wood and
Mahogany. But it is evident trat the
is between general retrcnchment
nd bankruptcy.
We have little faith that the choice
I'LL be what the country demands. The
igns and omens of the present are not
Those who make haste to gath.
r riches are as many as ever before,
nd they are no less daring and adyen-
urous than wien the keenest eye could
iscern no danger in the horizon. The
nportations are unusually large, even
Or the West, that always buys so enor-
nously; and of these importations an
ndue proportion is gew-gaws and mil
mary. Speculation on the faith of the
uture is the pursuit of large classes
Contracts are entered into, and obliga-
ions are incurred, as ifthe general settle
nent or balances and payday had been
.'ostponed. Rents are put up to a point
7here they should be if the city were