The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-11-06

was $50. Some portion of the advance
Is due to the existing heavy taxation.
But by far the greater portion is the
fruit OF the general lunsettlement- OF
values resulting from an irnedeemable
paper currency, which enables manu-
facturets and dealers to gradually ad-
vance their prices without check from
the public. The only .true standard OF
value being remoyeu, all, l,commercial
values become capricious; il. all the
dealers in eggs should combine to re-
fuse to sell eggs under q dollar a piece,
we should atter a time submit to the
extortton, and the consumption would
not materially decline.
Let us take three articles of common
use-beef butter, and mileh COWS. Be
fore the war, we In New York used to
pay 15 to 20 cents for the best beef, 25 to
so cents for butter, and $35 to $50 for
the finest milch cows. When they rose
in price during the war the butchers
and dealers were ready with an ex-
PLANTATION. s5.f5+t1 1ffjff5I.5,7l5,.
1t was mainly owing to the Interrupt
ton OF our trade with Texas and other
Southern cattle-groWing regions. The
rise In butter was in good part due to
the advance In gold, which being $50,
rendered butter good article of export.
Wen, the war Is over; we have -unre-
strtcted intercourse with Texas; gold is
sold down to 146; and yet we pay. S0aS5
cents for our beef, 60a65 cents for but
ter, and S150a250 for milch COWS. II can
not be pretended that we eat much
more beef or butter than we, did in
1850, or that the country produces much
less than II. did in that year. The In
crease In the demand cannot be any
greater than the Increase in the, supply.
", Why, then, should prices have dopbledF
The reason is simply that an irrede deema-
BILE paper currency has unsettled ali
values, and that drovers and dealers,
having begun to advance prices In or
der to pay themselves for the taxation
10 which they are now subie discover
no obstacle to further successive ad-
vancesi TO which the public submit
which may generally be relied on In
such cases to check attempts at extor-
ttonj fails to work in this casei because
the great prosperity of theii country
anords market for all; and the vast
bank expansion has stactually-for the
time-abOlishedl the. needy class. T
Take the case of buildings. An au-
thority In this trade calculates that it
coss ~ TO. 20 per cent, more now. to
buiid In New York than it did when
gold was $50. Iron and few other ar
ticles which can be imported are cheap
err; but lumber and labor are both
h1gher than they were in 1864. Yet the
supply of labor has beenSwelled by the
dtsbandment.o ofhalf n millionI Of men,
and by an 7unexampled Immigration !;
aud buildingis far, from active. Lum-
Der is no scarcer than 1t was, and we
do not see that the demand can have
increased much. It is the same story.
Carpenters who, used to think them
selves well off when they got So a day
now strike Tor an advance from 81.
They tell you that the cost of living has
more than doubled. It has Increased,
no doubt, not only in conseq nence OF
the depr eciated currency and Increased
taxation, but much more from the in
creased profits demanded by dealers OF
all kinds; and the carpenters. in their
turn, think that when prices are rising
they may just as we'll have an atlyanCe
OF 70 as of so cents The on1y5 time
standard thrown away, there is : no no
reason why prices should sstonI lAny
where. - 'Ffs s1i1Is lIsfIE : S'TH
Adaily journal has been looking into
ladies' hats. Every fashlonable reader
p NJ