The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-07-23

/ and State, the interest on the investment, the
1 fifty per cent. discount on money, the insu-
rance, repairs, &c, we are not prepared to
admit that the landlords in Norfolk "have
combined together to Cypress the community
by trebling and quadrupling their rents"
| Indeed, we published notice Of letters from
several of them, respectable gentlemen as they
are, addressed to the Tenants Meeting, which
are directly in the teeth of the assertions of
our cotemporary. The Inconsistency of the
Virginian is very bald that can make
such charge, and yet in the conclusi n of
its article say, we believe the 1.-TWO hundred"
landlords generally liberal and enlightened
gentlemen"-but standing in their own
light"
We have no law regulating the price of
money, as the Virginian asserts. The price
of gold dollar is now one dollar and fifty
cents in greenbacks, the currency of the coun-
! try-and this price is the result of the ''myth-
ical and fictitious law" of supply and de-
4 mand, which seems to haveso perplexed and
bewildered our contemporary. We have, how
ever, the rate fixed by law for the use of
money but what is the effect of such legs-
lative interference Instead of getting the
use OF money at the illegal rate" it is patent
to every community that the needy man is
|
the legal rate, sixty per cent; or, perhaps,
more, if be should need the amount for
twelve-month; whereas, if there were no legal
rate fixed, there would be a freer and larger
competition among banks and money lenders,
and the needy man would be able to borrow
| upon more advantageous terms. But there
is no true analogy between the positions &C.
| cupied by the usurer and the landlord, as the
| Virginian presumes. Not only are rents de-
pendent upon supply and demand, but Mr..
MILL makes interest on money SO dependent,
and says, demand and supply have no diff
| ferent meaning, or effect in this case from
what they have in all others" But then, the
| Virginian says it were better to say rents
''are governed by combination of specula-
| ton generally liberal and enlightened
gentlemen" upon "the misfortunes of people
! who are not SO fortunate as to own real es-
tate"-and the Virginian knows, because it
'begs leave" to differ with such political
economists as Mr.. Mill and others, who,
nevertheless, are the acknowledged teachers
of the people upon these subjects The Vir-
| ginian supposes case in which it seeks to
introduce the principles of benevolence or hui
mainly, which Adam Smith will tell him, in
| his Wealth of Nations, ARE inadmissable princ-
pies in the discussion of question like that
| of rent. He was the greatest of all the
| Scotch thinkers, and in his celebrated work on
| the Wealth of Nations, he investigates the
| selfish part Of human nature, as in his Theory
Of the Moral Sentiments, he makes sympathy
| the handspring of human action. In his
| Wealth of Nations he ascribes our actions to
selfshness or self-love. In reply to the sup
posed case of half the city burning down, we
unhesitatingly say that the laW Of supply and
al 80
other half; for, that law is not effected at all
| ty. 1t is unbending, unyielding, like all the
laws of God, and has no respect to persons or
| conditions
The rents in Norfolk the Virginian as
! serts, were "raised without the least shadow
| of Justification, and are double what they are
| in Philadelphia and Baltimore" The fact of
the occupancy by tenants is proof itself of
| justifcation-the justification of the law of
demand and of value If the law of demand
were not in operation, the houses would be
empty. The Virginian admits that the mer-
chant, grocer, hotel keeper, boarding house
keeper. adds the rent to the prices of the
goods, and that the consumer pays the rent
tor them-and that it is the laborer, the
! artisan and the professional man who are bur-
thened with the heavy tax.
Whether or not there be shadow of JUS
LITIGATION for increasing rents" which the Vir-
glnian says there is not; it is an indisputable
fact which we presume our cotemporary will
not deem mythical or fictitious that rents
and wages rise with the prosperity, and fall
with the decension of the society. We are
therefore happy to have at least the testimony
of high rents in proof of the prosperity Of
Norfolk, and take leave to suggest to our &C.
e.
hastily sketched, upon the subjects of the
laws of trade, demand and supply, price of
money, interest, relations of landlord and
tenant, and specially the subject of rent, leav-
ing out its consideration of Baltimore and
Philadelphia
In the meantime, we shall wait for the full
filment of its promise to ego more fully into
the subject" which has already elected the
singular notions Of reform and protection
which our cotemporary characterizes as "pop-
ular ideas hastily sketched.'
In conclusion the author Of History Of Civ
| ilization in England, says: "The great enemy
to the progress of mankind, and therefore the
| great enemy of civilization, is the protective
spirit; by which | mean the notion that 80
ciety cannot prosper, unless the affairs of life
are watched over and protected at nearly
every turn by the state and the church; the
state teaching men what they are to do, and
the church teaching them what they are to
| believe" And ADAM SMITH remarks, ~ have
never known much good done by those who af-
fected to trade Tor build houses) for the public
good 1t is an affectation indeed, mot very COM
mon among merchants, (nor landlordsl and
very few words need be employed in dissuad-
ing them from it. By pursuing his own in
terest man frequently promotes that of the
society more effectually than when he really
intends to promote it. The consideration of
his own private profit is the sole motive
| which determines the owner of any canital TO