The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-03
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, JANUARY 3. 1859.

oNbhi, ohNOahl 81 looS.
Statistics have not generally been considered
fascinating study. Few men share the enthusiasm
OF McCULLoCH, q CAREY, or a De BoRU, and no
journal within our knowledge enters into the COM
pilation and sale of Commercial Statements"
with such ''perfect looseness' as the Baltimore
american. s'Figures - they say, "wont iie''-ne-
Their will words, if not used by iars-nor will Ell
Their words or figures make mistakes if let alone
by blunderers; but both become utterly deceptve
when abused by ignorance or mendacity. Facts
may be quite as easily perverted by COCKER as by
VAUDEVILLE and every student of political econo-
my will have to admit that many column Ct
figures, like the marble column of the satirist-
lifts its head and-les."
1t was perhaps an amiable weakness on the part of
ourcotemporary-to wish to appease in some degree
the agonzing suspense with which the whole Com
merclal world was awaiting its Commercial
Statement for ls5s-by cutting short its stafisti
cal history, some days before its close. Perhans
1t was pious and appropriate fraud, to append a
forged date, to tissue of blunders made up under
gross mlsapprehenslon and terminating in guess
But really, upon cool and deliberate considera-
uon OF the premises, and thorough examination
OF the ridiculous mousse brought forth by the
Commercial mountain" amid far more than the
ordinary outcry of parturition we see no sufficient
cause, why our amiable Postmaster should have
peen so over-worked, these holy-day times, or
why the government of the UNITED STATES
Should have been put to extra CHARGES in the ex-
tremely low state of the Treasury balance. as
we assured has been the case-in order to get this
premature birth into the world
Before this time, each trade or interest in our
city, which has been supplied from the Immense
edition. of The american, will have read and
formed its own opinion of those portions, at least
most interesting to itself We would not needless
ly impute the reading of the whole of it to any
class of our business men. How the '1eather
dealers" must have chuckled over the statement
that within the last few months the price of hides
had fallen but there was more active demand
'for leather" Glorious for leather Hides de-
Ginning, and ''sole and 'fupper," active! Nothing
like leather
Their enthusiasm, however must have been
shors-lived, for just below, we are informed that
for .'Hides the market opened in January last, at
"about q to % cts. for Buenos Ayres, which de-
'scrlption generally brings highest rates. Prices
gradually advanced and in October 253 cts. was
1.-THE ruling rate. In December the price rose to
''27 cts, &C." What market for hides is here
disclosed declining steadily from the January
quotation of 81 cts till in the succeeding Deem
Der, 1t had reached the unprecedentedy low figure
OF II cts. Really, our neghbors notion of a fall
must be very much like that of the honest Irisbman
who having tumbled from the too of tree. held
on firmly to the grass beneath-for fear that he
might '5aH up again. and be destroyed entirely.
Possibly, however, the ''fall in hides' thus re-
ported, may be the result of the guess-work which,
as we have suggested, must have taken the place
OF history in the last three days of the year. in The
Americans statement If so, the vaticination was
unhappy.
The Sailed Fish Trade " has made some new
and unexpected discoveries in its line of business
set forth in remarkably ineligible array of fig
ures. 1t will feel itself rather "smal potatoes -
in view of the fact that the receipts from all
sources for 1858, only 1875 barrels of shad.
ana 2o,5H do. herrings. We trust it will do
better next year, or that, at any rate, The Ameri-
can will report them more correctly.
NO doubt ''The Lumber Trade has read the
account OF its business with great relish. It is
certainly unique. "The receipts from the Sus
"quehanna Region from which our supplies of
building lumber are mainly drawn, have been in
advance OF those of 1857, and will reach yerv
nearly so millions of feet. We include all sawed
lumber, both white and yellow pine'' Yellow
pine from the Susquehanna Why not add loo
wood and lignum vitae? Our neichbor could not
OOH MS shaving water with the yellow pine from
the Susquehanna! To show his profound knowl-
edge OF a subject on which he descants at consid-
cradle length we will state that he has the whole
receipts of yellow pine" Immediately below. I'M
der the head of ''North Carolina J,umbar ),
which includes cargoes from our Eastern Shore
North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida,
His estimate of the total receipts of this mar It.
are at least twenty millions of feet too high The
Baltimore Price Current is still wilder on this
point. 1t g ives the Lumber receipts of Baltimore
at 1T, 5l9, l04 feet a very commendable particu-
larlty In the figures when the result is largely more
than 100 millions of feet out of the wav.
We have little doubt that almost every trade has
discovered errors, discrepancies and blunders al
most as great as those which glance has enabled
us to detect. The value of manufactured To-
bacco, for example, is set down at $500 600
for the whole city-ess than half the sales in all
probability, OF some of our houses 1t is true that
after this Statement is printed, and confdinp
friends, who for more than month past have
been encouraged by promises of unusual accuracy
and completeness of information, to supply them
selves with "copies in wrappers and have, by its
own showing, loaded the foreign and domestic mails
with so deceptive and notifying a summary of
one OF our most important and fourishing inter-
ests' 1he american comes out cooly next day, and
admits that by the accidental omission of fpure-
difference Of just three millions of dollars is made
in the result! How is it possible that this correc
ton can repair the mischief? What portion of
those who will swallow the bane will ever see the
anhdote? Besides, this is not the only blunder in
the tobacco statement In that part of it pre-
tending to give comparative view of the sbip-
ments from this port in 1857 and 1853, we have
In the latter year the enormous aggregate of e5
hnus'' whereas correct summing of its own fig
ures would have shown result precisely 30 900
hhds. less, or 65, $50 hhds
What possible value, then, attaches to state
ment which is thus shown to be false in its pre-
tences false in its statements false in its differences
false In Its figures, and not even reliable in its
simple addition and Typography
In view of the gasconade with which The
American has sought to impress this community
with the belief that taone held the key of correct
commercial information, we think it can do nothing
less, than recall the budget of blunders which i,
has so recklessly issued-and send forth in its
stead, at its own expense done up in wrappers with
one and two cent stamps gratuitously gummed on,
revised edition. in which, under the light afforded
by our friendly criticism, and the superior infor-
nation contained in our Statement, all its errors
shall be admitted and set right-and then invite
its outraged subscribers to supply themselves az
ll5'tum 1t is only in this way that it can regain
Its own self-respect, and the good opinion of the
community.