Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-06-03
How to Bring Prices Down


or now than they were before the war
commenced. The transfer of half a mil
lion men from the producing to the con-
Stunning class necessarily increases the
wages of laborers and the cost Of pro-
duction. The enormous issues of paper
money by the government, and the equal
ly enormous initiation Of the currency by
the almost unrestricted issues of the
banks, make greenbacks and bank bills
about as
"Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the banks
in Vallambrosia,"
and when money is abundant prices can
be no otherwise than high. High prices
will inevitably prevail until paper dol
lar will again buy gold dollar. We
have some hope and some faith that the
time will come, but our faith in that re-
spect is the evidence of things not seen
as yet
But there can be no doubt that the
prices of many things are unnecessarily
high. They are occasioned to a great
degree by spectators, heartess set of
men who care not who suffers if they
only flourish, who loses if they only gain.
Money is now so easily to be had that
few such men combining together can
readily control the W b o e of any
given article, and demand for it whatever
price they please. We saw, not long
since, one of their operations in butter
by which the price of that article was
carried up at guage from twenty-five
cents to forty in the country, and to sixty
or seventy in the city. But we have al
SO seen how easily their movements can
be checked and the operation checkmat- P
ed. A quiet refusal TO eat butter at high u
prices speedily brought it down twenty u
five cents, at which price farmers can +
well afford to sell it, and fore-handed u
men can afford to eat it. "
The same principle has been applied
another way in New York city. The d
hack drivers suddenly advanced thoir .,
price from six to ten cents, an unneces- 9.
sary and exorbitant price at which the ..
people of Gotham at once rebelled. If ;.
the advance had been only to eight there .
might have been a show OF reason for it,
but nearly doubling the price savored of =
extortion. All New York went on foot. =
Even Mr.. and Mrs. Shoddy would not 6
stand the swindle, and after driving
empty hacks for week or two the hack |,
men returned to their senses aud 10 their
former prices.
Apply the same principle to all the
luxuries of life, and prices must come
down. Do without them rather than pay
extravagant prices. A great majority OF
the things which we use, and which we
have used SO long that we think they are
necessaries, are really luxuries, and we
can do without them. 1t will cost severe
selfdenial it may be but it is for our
good and for the good of the country that
we do without them. Especially is it
important that we dispense to the very
utmost with imported goods. They have
to be psid for in gold, and it is the con-
slant draining of gold from the country
which makes gold SO scarce and high,
and with the price of gold everything
also corresponds. Within a single week
recently $7,000,000 in gold was exported
from the city Of New York alone to pay
for foreign goods. Unless that leak and
other leaks Of the same sort can be stop
ped, there is no way to avoid financial
ruin. And by far the larger part of the
goods furnished with the gold can be dis
pensed with as we'll as not. The impor-
tations of silks alone into New York in
single year amount 10 S27,50000O; of. |
laces, 100000; of embroderies, S4.-
100000; of wines, brandies, and cigars, l
S4,O0O,OO0 each. OF which nearly
S50,0O0,000, how much was necessary?
Not tenth part of it. The great bulk
Of ii was as needless as a fifth wheel TO l
Wagon. '
We have noticed with much satisfac- 9
ton that movement in this direction t
has been made, and made in a way that L
affords good hope of success. To make z
the thing more wonderful it has origina- =
ted in Washington; the very last place
IN the county where we would expect
any good thing to originate, and yet a
good thing has for once come out of this u
modern Nazareth. The fashionable
ladies there, the wives Of cabinet minis.
tiers and members of congress have &C.
tually pledged themselves to buy no i'm. v
ported goods during the war. Next 70 Q
the total abstinence pledge, that is the 1
very best pledge that any woman or man o