The Portland daily press., 1864-07-01
Prices and Investments.

The following very sensible article we find
in the Boston Transcript, but presume, as it
was not loaded it was copied from some other
paper:
Financiers OF the Copperhead persuasion
are as unreliable as politicians OF the same
school, Both aim at the anne goal by different
roads. The one wishes TO weaken the gov
ernment by Gripping our armies, the other oy
depreciating our funds. The favorlie text OF
the disloyal financiers just now is Prices and
the Currency "Prices," they say, "are not
really high, it is the Currency which Is low.
For gold dollar you can to day buy as much
as you ever could" They regard gold as the
one fixed thing around which everything else,
revoves. The truth is that gold, like every
thing else, fuctuates in value in accordance
with the law Of demand and supply.
Prices are high. Every man who has any
thing TO buy or sell, no matter whether it be
food or clothing, gold or labor, knows this aud
acts accordingly That these high prices are
caused in part by the increase in the amount
OF the currency is true. But this is only one
cause out of many. No matter what the me-
dunn OF making exchanges, prices in times Of
war must always be high. And that for the
simple reason that the demand for every pro-
duct of labor Is increased, while the supply is
diminished. War draws the farmer from the
pillow and The mechanic from his tools 1t also
changes the direction of labor. The ship
wright, who formerly built clippers for COM
merce now builds Monitors aud Ironsides for
war. War is also, OF necessity, wasteful. An
army Of million men must of necessity con-
sumo more than the same million would at
home. War prices are therefore high prices,
by law just as inevitable as that OF the at
traction ofs gravilation.
War prices always have been and always
must be high prices. II every dollar OF paper
currency were destroyed tomorrow, and only
specie used in payment, prices would be high.
A redundant currency increases this evil, but
does not create it, The probability is that
the currency OF the country has now reached
its highest point.
To the general advance in prices there is
but one marked exception, and that is in the
bonds Of the Government. They are cheap
! now, for the simple reason that the exigencies
| of the war have made them abundant When
1 the war ends they must be dear, because the
supply will be cut Off. The man who invests
/ his capital In them now must make good liz
vestment, tor they pay fair interest and are
/ more secure than anything else can be. The
man who has a hundred dollars In Govern
ment bonds has really mortgage, TO that
amount upon every acre OF land, every mile
1 of railway, every Ship, every house, ever ar
]
He has, moreover. no trouble TO collect the
interest Government does that for him.
1t is a great error to suppose that great
capitalists alone have an interest in owning
1 Government stock. Every man who has any
surplus, however small, should own it. If he
1 owns none he Is & debtor To those who do,
and his property in every shape is niortgaged
for that debt. Ii he owns this stock he is so
Tar creditor, and holds a mortgage upon
every other mans property. In the long run
these mortgages will cancel each other; and
our national debt, so far as IL is held by our
selves, will be paid off from the accumulations
! of past and future years. But the man to
! whom the nation owes nothing will have to
| pay his share Of the interest and receive
nothing; while the man who is a creditor OF
| the nation receives interest as well as pays it.
| Government stocks at present prices, or at
prices which are at all likely to prevail during
the war, are in every way the best Investments
/ possible. Every man who wishes to avoid the
evils nseparable from high prices should in
vest portion of his surplus earnings in CAPT
tai Government bonds.