Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1862-05-08
Scarcity Of Provisions.


New Orleans, sugar is selling at five or six
prices in Richmond. Richmond must pro.
cure all her sugar from Louisiana; New
Orleans may procure her -four from the
Red river country. The predioament of
Richmond is worse than that Of her sister
city in Louisiana, but the privations Of each
are great and pressing. r..-
If Richmond could obtain sugar and mo-
lassss by some cheap and regular process,
the cost of these articles hers would be
diminished more than half and the price
that would thsn be realized on them by
their first owners, in New Orleans, would
be doubled. Each community would be
twice - we'll off as it is and the burden of
war would fall much more lightly on both.
There is great danger of famine in the
South of sugar and molssses famine in
tho Atlantic States, ofa salt and -four fam
inc in the Gulf States. There is great
danger of salt and meat famine in Eastern
Virginia, even though tho western portion
of the State would be glad to exchange
their superabundanoe Of these articles for
-four, coffee, nails, and thousand minor
articles, for many of which they are pinched.
This question Of famine has become a
very serious one all over the country. E1-
horbitant prices are s1aotsd for the articles,
as to which a local destitutiea prevails !;
and the community is thus taxed more
heavily for the means Of living than if they
paid = large revenue directly out Of their
pockets into the public treasury.
This scarcity exists everywhere in speoi-
al forms. 1t is not due 10 the fact that the
general supplies of the country ia every ar.
tiole are unequal to the general demand !;
but it results from tho fact that these sup
plies are not distributed There is no
transportation for tho commodities Of the
community. The suporauou sugars of
New Orleans are held there at half prices,
because there are no means Of getting them
to the quarters where they are wanted
Sugar brings ia Richmond triple the cost
and freight from New Orleans, because
there is no transportation for them to Rich
mond in quantity:
If q calculation be made of the cost to
the community all over the Confederacy Of
tho articles for which each locality pay
these high prices, it would be found, no
doubt, that the tax inflicted upon the pub
lilo in this manner is ss great as the whole
cost Of the var. The people are probably
paying in this way ous Of their pockets, as
the war goes along, as much as they will
hereafter have 10 pay in taxation to extin-
guish the public debt.
The question naturally arises, upon this
state Of things, why is it that the railroads
do nottrausport for the oommunitya at large
Why is their business in freishts for the
people discontinued? Why happens it
that the people are by this delinquency tax.
ed out Of their pockets, for articles Of liv-
ing, an amount approximating the whole
cost of the war? If these interrogatories
are addressed to the men Of the railroads,
their prompt answer is, that their trains are
monopolized by the government, and total
ly engrossed in the business of the govern
ment commissaries and quartermasters.
The plea is probably true one if so,
can nothing be done to relieve this intoler.
able, this ruinous evil? Has the govern
ment either the heart or the brains to in.
stitute some reform Of an abuse which is
imposing heavy tax upon the people p
Are the Messrs. Oommissaries and Quarter.
masters, with stories of whose reeking cor
ruptions the whole community is so rife, sc
infallible in all their plans and measures tc
be beyond the reach of control and direc.
tion from official superiors? This is clear,
that unless some steps are speedily taken
to secure part of the services of the rail
roads for the uses of the general public;
famine will soon begin to stalk abroad in
our midst.-Richmond Examiner.
s% The enemy, We hear, are removing