Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1857-01-27

annual outlay for repair; but the per cent.
would be insignificant, compared with the
returns Does not the scheme look feasi
BILE? What say our business men? We
would like to hear from them.
How is Cincinnati TO be supplied
with FueI.
This is question of fearful import to
that city, because not only her prosperity
as manufacturing emporium depends on
its solution, but the comfort of her veal
thier citizens and the very lives Of her
poor as well.
1t is settled past all reversal that her fu-
el for the future is to be coal. To supply
her present consumption in any considera-
bic degree, with wood, has already become
an impossibility. Coal, then, is her only
reliance, and coal she must have. She
must not only have coal, but she must have
it in abundance. She must have it acces-
sible to her at all seasons, and she must
have it cheap. Either of these conditions
failing, her progress ceases, and decay be-
gins.
If there is not an abundant supply with
in her reach, monopolists may control the
market to the prostration Of her business
and the untold suffering of her people. If
it is not at all times accessible to her, a
season like the present may give a shock
to her trade from which she will require
years to recover. And if it is not cheap,
her manufactures cannot compete with
those more favorably located. For when
competition is free, demand and supply
will invariably adjust themselves TO the
minimum cost Of production. In all arti-
cles then, in the manufacture of which
coal enters largely, its price becomes ma
terial element in the cost of production;
and difference of few cents on BUSH
el, or the failure of a supply by impossi-
bility of access to it, but for short time,
may sink the capital and ruin the hopes of
the most prudent and enterprising.
Manufactures established in the vicinity
Of coal can always procure their fuel at
from three to five cents per bushel. But
the experience of manufacturers in Cincin-
natl have proved that they cannot pay more
than nine or ten cents a bushel for it there,
and compete with Pittsburgh and other
places where coal is cheap. And in a sea-
son like the present, with the price of coal
ranging from twenty to sixty cents,
the manufacture is reduced to the hard al
Tentative of continuing his business to the
ruin of himself, Or closing his establish,
ment, to the hopeless distress of his work,
men and their dependant families.
Rail Road Companies, to induce Gin.
cinnati and her citizens to subscribe to theil
stock have made large promises, and ex
hibited apparently fair statements, showing
the advantages to be realized by running
their road through the coal fields Of Ohio
and thus securing an unfailing supply
This was especially the case with the G. y
M. r. r. But after all that has been sale
and promised, however honestly intended
at the time, experience demonstrates tha
Cincinnati cannot rely on that Road to sup
ply her wants. This we think is suscep
tible of the clearest demonstration. And
we think it is equally demonstrable tia
while her main dependence must be on th'
River, yet she must have access to tn
sources of her supply by Railroad as well
How then are all the conditions abov,
named to be fully realized? This is {
question, in the solution of which, Meig.
County, as we'll as Cincinnati is vitality in.
terested. And we propose, unless some
one better informed will relieve us of the
task, in series of articles, to call the at
tention of the citizens of both places to thu
subject.
int