Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-10-27
1.0n n. PALIaaslpALa AnstIoaa.
Is our Prosperity n Reality

Those Democrats who predicted our utter
ruin merely from interrupted Southern
trade, and have been refuted by present
facts, yet take leave 70 demur against what
they deem an over-charged picture of our
present prosperity. So they dwell on what
they call the reverse side of the picture,
and bring into prominence the fact that
everything essential to luxurious life has
decidedly risen IN price, and the rule holds
good also as affecting the articles pertain
ing to comfort or necessity. J1a
1t cannot be denied that the alleged facts
are substantially true. Silks, fine cloths,
tea, coffee, sugar, with many other i'm port /.
ed articles, have all experienced a consid-
| able rise in price. This is owing chiefly
to higher custom duties, and in part to ad :
ditional sea risks from the depredntions of
o-Confederate privRteers. Cotton
goods also have advanced in value, from
| the prevalence of war in the districts
which produce the staple, or the strict
blockade which allows little to escape into
the great marts of commerce. Coal, too,
an article of prime necessity and domestic
production, participates to q remarkable
extent in the general advancement.
Perhaps there are some special reasons
in this case. arising from peculiar causes.
The railways and canals carrying the fuel
to market had been for may years engaged
in q keen competition with each other,
which rendered their rates so unremunera-
tive that dividends were impossible. Our
| iron furnaces aud factories, however, be-
| coming active under the stimulus of a
higher tariff, demanded immense quaint.
ties of coal, and the carrying companies
raised their rates, whilst At the same time
the mining operatives demanded and OBJ
tanned such high wages as additionally to
all Oh. al 40 49,
cause may be bnt temporary, and the i'm
migration of foreign laborers may soon
reduce the rate to a reasonable point,
whilst still leaving to the miner good
days wages. People must economize in
this article, which is quite practicable,
since its former cheapness undoubtedly led
to Wastetul consumption.
But though coal, cotton cloths and most
| commodities imported from foreign COun-
| tries, have thus advanced in price, there
are other important articles OF daily use
which have experienced little or no change.
Wheat -four, the staff Of life, remains
steady at former rates, as does Indian corn
and its preparations, potatoes and many
other articles detlVable from the farm
Improved machinery, applied TO aRricul-
turo, keeps in nhsSk that angmentinp ten
deney in prices which otherwise would
loperate here as elsewhere. House rent
also keeps pretty much as before the war,
though nearly all the dwellings, are now
occupied.
Taking into consideration, therefore, the
articles on which there has been no ap-
preciable advance, and striking fair av-
erage from all these, We shall find that the
increased cost Of living has been bat mod
erately raised. And while We urge this
eonsideFation, and agree that in regard 70
that class of the community who lived
upon fixed incomes the pressure may be &
hard Que, yet We know that as regards
nearly all Others affected by recent changes
there are adequate cOmpensations.
First, as 70 the great masses Of the peo-
pie, the industrious farmers, mechanics
and laborers, It is manifest that their con-
diti0n compares faVorably With aha. of
any former period. Onr agrieultufalisIs
have had for three years past good prices
for their exportable produce, owing 70
deficient harvests in Rurobe. They have
bsen extiuguishing ths mortgages on their
lands 70 an extent seldom before WiIness-
ed and now that the foreign crops are
better, aud the demand on orr grain fields
consequently less, our farmers ara finding
more active home market, from the in
creasing mining and manufacturing opera.
tons constantly in the course of develop
ment in this era Of real independents.
The manufacturing aud meeha1ieal arti-
Eaos Of allltrAdes have been enabled, from
the general activity, to advance their JEae-
e by additions more than equivalent 70
the increased cost Of living, whilst the
miners and laborers, who do the fouRheF
aud harder work, have 60 added 70 their !
daily wages lin many instances doubling
tneul that they can nov esioy more Of /
the comforts of life than ever before, and +
more also than was possible 70 this class l
in any time or country. B 3 - -
Never before was such . spectacle ex-
hinited, and ne marvel not that the ifor-I