Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-15
The Open yfnter---Ifz EAects on


In many respects the past winter could not
have been more favorable. After the COM
mercial and industrial disasters of the preced-
ing autumn, a winter like that of 1856 and
1887 would have been the death-warrant to
thousands. 1t seems almost providential,
that, when 30 many persons were out of en-
p2oyment, the weather should have been SO
mild.
There is another effect of the open winter,
says the Philadelphia Ledger, which is less
generally spoken of: we allude to its infu-
ence on trade. During the entire season, the
great artery OF commerce in this State, the
pennsylvania Railroad has been uninterrupt-
eddy at work, pouring the wealth of the West
upon the Atlantic seaboard and thus assisting
TO liquldate the debts due to our merchants.
Had the winter been severe, especially had
heavy SHOWS prevailed hundreds of thousands
OF dollars, now paid, would have been I'M
paid, and tens of thousands of bushels of
wheat, now brought to market, would have
remained unproductive in the valley of the
Mississippi.
1t was only last week, for example, that we
saw an announcement, in commercial jour
nal of the arrival of thousand barrels of
flour at New York. from Dayton, Ohio, in
four days, via the Pennsylvania Railroad. In
the dead of winter, these thousand barrels had
been transported, from the western extremity
of Ohio, through Philadelphia, to New York,
where they had been sold on the day of their
arrival, discharging, to that amount, the obi
cations of western farmers and storekeepers
to eastern jobbers and importers. What WAS
done, in one instance in those four days, was
done in many others. in the same time (; and
what was done then has been done all winter.
Where would the East have been, financially,
if the transportation had been stopped alto
gether, as it was before the days of railroads,
or even for a month as it was last winter?
1t is doubtful if resumption of specie pay
ments, so successfully undertaken and carried
out in February, could have been achieved
even by April. The open winter, on this ac-
count, has been worth millions to the country
at large.
Now we have cold weather, sufficient at
least to check a too early vegetation, so that
the season, even from an agricultural view,
promises to be favorable. The cold has tenn
porarily delayed trade, but this, perhaps, is
all the better. The indications are that there
will be healthy business done this spring,
for the West has paid up more thoroughly
than was expected after the crisis: and the
stocks on hand in country stores are lighter
than many had supposed. 1t would be folly,
however, for jobbers to sell as largely as in
former years and the wisest of them do not
desire it. If the losses which so many firms
have made are TO be avoided for. the future.
there must be more discrimination as to cred
its there must be a smaller business done in
proportion to the capital. The object of a
merchant is to make money, not merely to
dispose of goods and, therefore, TO charge
sales in the ledger is not advancing, unless
the buyers pay subsequently. 1t Is not al
ways that the season, as now, comes to the aid
of our follies.-Cm. Times.