Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1865-02-04
High Prices---Complaints Of the
People.

complaints about the exorbitant rate they
are compelled to pay for everything they
consume. ln most instances these com
plants are excusable, and again they are
not. Editors aud Publishers, Of all other
men, have good grounds for complaint for
the price asked and received ior white a.
per is positively hey ond endurance. This
is owing, not so much to an advacne in
the price Of rags and chemicals used in
the Manufacture of paper, as to combina.
ton. Paper manufacturers have formed
themselves into league, land thus regulate
the paper market themselves. The duty
upon foreign paper is SO fooishly high as
to make it prohbitory and not pound ar
rives here. Thi, fact gives our own man
uiacturers the monopoly, and they can
ask and receive just what they please
They have made immense fortunes in two
or three years, and editors and publishers
have become poor in about the same ratio
So much for our own business now for
few words about other mems affairs.
The place to hear men and women com.
plain loud and long about prices, is in our
town market. "Wb ats the price of but.
ter = ask, one. "Fifty cents, is the re.
ply. "fbe devil you say,"i the response
Of the would be buyer, as he hurrics on
to ask the same question Of rnothcr but
ter mau, who gives him the same answer.
He is evidently in bad bunor. GLOW
much for cggs!' inquiries lady who had
half made up her mind to please her hus
band by gracing his table with nice
pound-cate. "Fifty cents, us the response
Bless me ,ho,c dsur,' and away she goes,
hoping to get her eggs trle cheaper but
in this she failed. She too feels wolfsh ---
Everything in our market appears dear
chickens per pair from rs cents to 81
turkeys from 81 so to 50 so each cab.
bage 30 10 % head, small at thai ap
p'co Hoh ~" 81 w 20 Per puoh0i peti
pork, mutton, sausages, &c about thrct
or four times az high as formerly, These
articles are the product Of the farm, and ;
few words in behalf of our agrirnlturr
) friends may seem called for.
Notwithstanding everything raised OF
the farm appesrs,a ,and indeed iS,very dear
in comparison with former prices, it i
nevertheless fact that farmers, in thei
. charges, come nearer the mark of justic
I than any other class OF men. Fifty cent
| a pound for butter, and the same for
dozen eggs sounds like extortion, but the
We must remember that we pay the farme
rags aud not money for his products, -
) Pay him in money-god or silver-an
g he will sell at very near the same price
e he received three or four years ago. W
y mus! recollleci that this trash that th
. LINCOLN administration issues and call
d. money, is at a discount of almost if nc
G quite tiity.five per cent. A dollar mol
o is on Y worth some As cents. This
/, the money we use now-and when th
e farmer takes it to The store he gets abol
| as many goods for 81 or S. as he former
ly got tor 81. Again, the farmer labor
e under peculiar disadvantages just now
l. Everything he uses is up 10 an ex 'rbtal
figure, and its next to impossible to obtai
o help. Nearly all the able.bodied viii
# m n are in the army, and the Thousand
:, of "freedmen" who are loaflng in tt
d country are not worth having.
N We repeat. t.lhen, that il is a fact th
farmers, as a class, hold what they hay
for sale at about their rates. Their pro
10 fits are not to large, considering all thing
oi We wish we could say as much for pape
le makers, maDufacturers, dealers in foreie
and domestic goods, railroads, and MAI
at moth corporations. These are the gentl
q men who are skinnng the people alive /;
pc is not the farmer, A tanner mentont
d. to us a few days ago that his taxes we
Ct enormous-several thousand dollars. L
70 was whining about it. We told him
n was mistaken, and that he did not p'
or one cent of tax, but that the poor ma
es who wants shoes for his family, paid
al for him. This is fact that every mi
l, knows. 1t is not the manufacturer, b
a. the consumer who pays tie tax, III
ee any manufacturer, and he at once adj
Ve the amount Of the tax-snd sometimes
@ good deal more-to his profits. Hen
"a he pays no tax. Railroads are taxc
20 but they don't pay larihiug-they ma
" their passengers and their freight men p
q, the whole of it. So we go. The cons
IS mer is the man who is Saddled with Il
~ taxes, and hence it is that we hear ii
y universal complaint about "hlgb prices