The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-11-11
VOL. XlII.



A spiey letter, pulliiAst in : nassachu.
sets psper-the NQrshanpson Cassfte-rs-
cites ihs cause Of tes pssssn. high prices
The writer thinks al purchasing csnshsnily
i too patient; it submits without grumbls
to outrageous exactsons and extortions; il
consents TO be Aee&ed on groundless and
|shallow prsaanses., During the war, he adds,
our psouas became hAhinaaed 70 : very in.
nated hind q arithm@eic, and lost their SEN
sitivsness 70 high pri9es. Rates are kept up
(AAor IN SodreaDonaha9 ceased; everything
eoss up With eo1d, "a no4hing comes do1n
With Is; and y the nihe digitS have ceased 70
have influence unless raised TO the third pow
=, or followed BY half dozen ciphers.
Speculation is one ednse of hieh prices.
The wires, says this writer. I" arc fhiriy cor
roded with blistering lies about cotton, coal,
wheat, -four, butter, fruit, and nearly every
article essentisl to hu man life or for its en-
durance. The price pf -four has been en-
hancsd all summer BY Aanchauseu reports Of
too much heat, and too much cold-AA ex-
cess Of rain here and p lack Of rain there-a
storm in one place and . tornado 10 another.
Every little fact Of local application has been
nursed into gigantic fiction Of universal ap-
plicafion, Each, in its turn. has fieeced the
community and kttened the specuiatos. =
Al wiA tkese articles, so with ccstons coal,
meats and teas.
Now, what can consumers do BY way Of
self-proseetion? Adopt the following sug-
gestions: ~. Practice temporary self denial.
For instance, if tea is made the subject mat
ter of extortion, let tea alone. Our grand>
mothers in '76 let it alone severely, to avoid
. duty of three cents pound; can't We be
as heroic TO avoid an exsortion Of fifty eight
cents . pound? So Of any article held for .
rise Let it be held till the interest ON it,
cost, or its own perishable nature, has atoned
for the intended outrage. Let grain heat, let
fruit rot, let butter turn rancid, let moth and
rust corrupt, till financial guerillas have
learned that an indignant public isn't going
to be s.lea like lamb to the slaughter" tOf
course no reference is here made TO legitimate
trade, or reasonable profits. Traffic is hon
orable when honorably conducted The ref
erence is only to those cases where the rise
in price is expected to come purely from .
combined holding, and not from natural
causes. Nor is any imputaiion intendedto be
cast upon country merchants as class. The
mischief generally originates back Of them
and further off. But if they should have to
suffer through the proposed remedy for the
sins of others, they would only be on par
Wl10 Tue IG8k Vi Lie Gun UluuIty.I
uWe are apt to think that this article or
that article is indispensable. Nothing sim
dispsneahle bat air and water, these, thank
God, capnot be held for rise." Some food
is indispensable, but no one kind ID 20. For
ever seeming essential there is substitute
Good bread can be made Of corn Is we'll IS
# wheat or rye, and the amount of the for
mer soon 10 be forthcoming Is inexhmstable,
and beyond the grasp Of monopoly. If meats
are high turn vegetarian, or make every day
in the week Catholic Friday. II the price
of substitute is enhanced by the increased
demand, no matter. The community will be
no worse off than before, and persistence in
the use of ths substitute viii soon make the
original article available at reasonable
price. Then the price of the substitute will
come down of tself. To be sure, the great
mass Of consumers through the country must
concur in the proposed remedy, or it will be
ine6eetuAl. But The people at large are in
selligent enough and ready enough TO rsmedy
. political evil, when once their attention to
It is aroused. They were swim enough to put
down the rebellion st whatever sacrifice; will
they be any less asift TO cheaper their own
bread asd butter, when they have once learn
ed how?
80 If the subject matter Of extortion h
desned indispapsable, aed no substitute is
ssaihble,. .Iel, the quantity used be = small y
possible. A reduction OF one-thir1 o. one-
half in the demand for any article would
cause the collapse Of many . speculative
bubble.
.s3 So far as possible, let consumer and
producer deal with each other. Both will BE-
the gamers. In respect to most commodities,
as things are now, there are too many go-be>
tweens, each Of whom must have his profit,
not only on Whist the he|producer received, but
on all intervening profits. Even supposing
each profit 10 be rea5 enable, the aggregate at
last becomes euormohs TO the consumer. The
beef producer in Illinois receives seven cents
per poond; the beef cater in, New York has to
pay four times seven, When producers and
consumers cannot come together, the latter
can, in many cases, combine together and
employ IN agent 70 aaks purchases at first
cost.
II Vas asserted hnd cuntradicted some
time aimee that ss(3AnRn Eli0tr or Miss