Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1864-07-07
High Prices--The True Cause.

1t is quite the custom Just now TO at
tribute the present high prices to an expan-
ded currency. We are Aippantly told that
this is the one cause of commercial derange-
ment and that if the currency were only
reduced to the standard Of three years ago,
prices would come down in the same pro-
portion. Let US think roment, and we
shall see the utter absurdity Of such con-
clusion. No matter what is the medium
for making exchanges, or what is currency,
or what is lawful money-whether it be
gold, or bank notes, or treasury notes-Uor
prices always were and always must be high
prices. Europe learned it during her Ma.
poleonic wars we learned it in the war Of
1872, and the same stern teacher compels
us to submit to it now. The reason is clear
and simple. Production is diminished, and
by the ,oaste Of war, consumption is in
creased The war draws the farmers sons
from the plow,- and fewer acres are sown
and smaller harvests are reaped. The me-
chanic arts suffer 10 the same proportion -
Scarcely less than two tifths OF our adult
male population are now devoting all their
time and energy to putting down the rebel
lion. Of these, vast number are in the
field with our brave generals, large part
man our ships of war, now counted by hun
dreds, and many are in hospitals; while
those employed in the navy yards, iron
works, machine shops and in the manufac-
ture of military clothing and equipments,
and in producing munitions and supplies,
swell the aggregate to the limit we have
named. This great class of producers can
not be withdrawn from their ordinary pur-
snits without great diminuton in the pro-
ducts of the country. When the supply is
L., l.,x,,.salal oal ~
only continued but increased, prices must
advance. There is no possible help for it.
Ii we could return to specie basis tO-nor-
row, it would still be war basis, at war
prices.
There is but one exception to this advance
in prices and that is the Government bonds,
and they are no exception to the rule, and
only follow the general law Of supply and
demand. The necessities of war have made
them abundant, and therefore they are
cheap; but when the war ends the supply
will cease and they will be dear, and the
man who invests in them now is sure OF q
liberal profit.
A reduction of the currency will be well
and we have the official assurance of the
Secretary of the Treasury thatit is now tax.
ing place, but it is not the infalible panacea
for financial disorder that many suppose. -
Mr. Cisco, the Assistant Treasurer of the
United States at New York, states that he
has cancelled forty. one millions of interest
bearing legal tenders within two weeks, and
that he now holds thirty millions of green
backs-and yet bread and butter, wheat and
corn and cloth are no cheaper.
The first cause of the increased cost OF
all commodities, gold included is altogether
outside Of the currency. A redundant cur
reucS increases the misfortune, but does not
create it. But suppose the Government
does contract the currency; what is to pre-.
vent the State banks that give no security
for circulation, from quadrupling their pa.
per issues, as they have already done in
many parts of the country? What, then,
can be more absurd than to make the Gov
ernment or Treasury Department the scape
goat for evils that'are simply consequent up
on the most gigantic war the world ever
knew? If the body has fever, is it just
to make the hand that supplies its want;
responsible for its unnatural condition p
N. Y. Examiner, June 23d.