The Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1859-1865, 1864-06-30
Eaiga, Praces---The True Cause.


It is quite the custom just now to at
tribute the present high prices to an
expanded Currency. We are fippantly
told that this is the one cause OF CONNER
cial deran cement, and that if the currency
were only reduced to the standard OF three
years ago, prices would come down In the
same proportion Let US think moment,
and we shall see the utter absurdity OF
such conclusion. No matter what is the
m edium for making exchanges, or what
is currency, or what is lawful money
VIII ether it be gold, or bank notes, or
treslsury notes-scar prices always were
and always must be high prices. Europe
lear ned it during her Napoleonic- wars !;
we earned it In the war of 1872, and the
sam stern teacher compels US to submit
to it now. The reason is clear and simple,
reduction is diminished, and, by the
,caste- of war, consumption is increased
The war draws the farmers sons from the
plow, and fewer acres are sown and smaller
harvests reaped The mechanic arts suf-
fer In the same proportion. Scarcely less
than wo- -ffths of our adult male popuia-
ton ar now Gevoting all their time and
energy to putting down the rebellion. OF
these vast number are in the field with
our bra We generals, q large part man our
ships OF: war, now counted by hundreds.
and ma ny are In hospitals; while those
employe in the navy yards, iron works,
machine shops, and in the manufacture of
clothing and equipments, aud in produ-
cling mu nitions and supplies, swell the
aggregate to the limit we have named
This grea class of producers cannot be
withdrawn, from their ordinary pursuits
withou a great diminution in the products
of the coun ny. When thesupply is greatly
diminished, and the demand not only con-
tlnucd but increased, prices mast advance
There is no possible help for it, If We
could retu m to specie basis tomorrow,
it would sti il be a war basis, at war prices
There is but one exception to this adj
vance in pr ices, and that is the Govern
ment bonds, and they are no exception
to the rule, and only follow the genera.
law Of supply and demand. The necessi-
ties Of war ha We made them abundant, and
therefore the y are cheap; bat when the
war ends the supply viii cease and they
will be dear and the man who invests
in them is sure. of liberal profit
A reduction Of the currency will be
well, anu we IA We luC olhcidi aSSuTance VI
the Secretary Of the Treasury that it is
now takiug pIac 9, but it is not the infalIi-
Bile 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 ten
ders within two eeks, and that he now
holds thirty millions of greenbacks-and
yet bread and butte r, wheat and corn and
cloth are no cheaper.
The first cause of the increased cost of
all commodities, gold included; is alto
gether outside of t ne currency. n re-
dundant currency inci eases the misfortune,
but does not create t. But suppose the
Government does co. .tract the currency !;
what is to prevent the State banks, that
give no security for circulation, from
quadrupling their paper issues. as they
have already done III many parts of She
country? What, tlIen, can be more
absurd than to make the Government or
Treasury Department. the scapegeat for
evils that are simply consequent upon the
most gigantic war the. world ever knew
Ii the body has a fever, is it just to make
the hand that supplies its wants RESPONSE
bic for its unnatur Il condition AZ T.
E.canainey.