Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-11-08
A GOod-Ilunaored story abosit
High Prices and the Remedy.

sctts psper-tbe Northampton Gazette
recites, the causes OF the present high
priccs, and contains soms suggestions for q
remedy. The writer thinks the purchasing
community is too patient; it submits with
out grumble TO outrageous exactions and
extortions; it consents to be feeced on
groundless and shallow pretences. During
the war, he adds, our people become habit
usted to very inflated kind OF arithmetic,
and lost their sensitiveness TO high prices. -
Rates are kept up alter all good reasons
have ceased; everything goes up with gold,
and nothing comes down with it; and the
nine digits have ceased to have Significance
unless raised to the third power, or followed
by half dozen ciphers.
Speculation is one cause of high prices.
The wires, says the writer, are fairly coro.
ded with blistering lies about cotton, ceal,
wheat, -four, butter. fruits, and nearly every
article essential to human life or for its en-
durance The price of -four has been en-
HANGED all summer by Munchausen reports
of too much heat, and too much cold-sn
excess Of rain here and d lack of fain there
a STORM in one place and q tornado in
another. Every little fact of local applica-
ton has been nursed inte gigantic fiction
of universal application. Each, in his turn,
has feeced the community and fattened the
speculator.
As with these articles, so with cotton,
coal meats and teas.
Now what can consumers do by way OF
selfprotectien2 Adopt the following sug-
kestioDs:
81 Practice temporary self denial. For
instance. if tea is made the subject matter
of extortion, let tea alone. Our grand.
mothers in '76 let it alone severely. to avoid
a duty ofthree cents pound; can't we be
heroic to avoid an extortion OF fifty,eight
cents pound? So of&Dy article held for
a rise. Let il be held till the interests on
its cost. or it's own perishable nature. has
atoned for the, outrage. Let grain heat,
let fruit rot, let butter turn rancid, let moth
and rust corrupt till financial puerrillas
have learned that an indignant publicis net
going TO he lied to the slaughter (Of
course no reference is here made to the le-
eitimate investments for a rise. or leeiti-
mate trade or reasonable profits. Traffic is
honorable whom honorahly conducted. The
reference ia only to those. cases where the
rise in pricesis axrected to come purely
from comhined holding, and MT from n3t-
ural causes. Nor is any iDput alton intend
ed to be east npon country merchants as
class. The mischief generally originates
hnck nf them and farther off. But IL they
should have to suffer through the proposed
remedy for the sins Of others. they would
only be Oh par with the rest Of the comma.
nifty @ ,.,d,.,. 80
that article is indispensable. Nothing is
indisbensable hut air and water; these.
thank Gcd. cannot be held for rise. =
Some fnod is Indispensable, but no one kind
IL 30. For every seeming essential there il
a substitute. Gond bread can be made of
corn as we'll as Of wheat or rye. and tie
amount ofthe former soon to be Forthcoming
is inexhaustible and beyond the grasp Of
monopoly. II meats are high, turn vege-
tartan. or make every day in the week a
Catholic Friday. Ifthe price of substitute
is enhanced by the increased demand. no
matter. The community will be no worse
ofT than hntnre, and persistence in the use
Of the substitute will soon make the ORIGINAL
article available at a reasonable price. Then
the rrice Of the substitute will come down
of itself. To be sure. the great mass Of con-
sumers through the country must concur in
the proposed remedy, or it will be inetfectu,
al. But the people at large are intelligent
enough and ready enough to remedy po-
litical evil when once their attention to 1t
was aroused. They were swift enough to
nut down the rebellion at whatever sacrl-
foe; will they be any the less swift to cheap
en- their own bread and butter, when they
have once learned bow2
80. IF the subject matter Of extortion is
deemed Indispensable, and no substitute is
available. let the quantum used be as small
as possible. A reduction of cne.third or
one half in the demand for any article would
cause the collapse Of many speculative
bubble. f.t9.l SEQ
"s. So far as possible, let consumer and
producer deal with each other. Both will
he the gamers. In respect to most commud-
ities as things are now. there are too many
20. o.betweens, each of whom must have his
profits. Even suppose each profit to be
reasonable, the aggregate at last becomes
enormous to the consumer. The beef-pro'
,ducer iu Illinois receives seven cents per
pound; the beef. eater in New York has to
paw four times seven. When producers
and consumers cannot come together, the
latter can. in many cases, combine together
and employ an agent to make purchases at
first cost !' ue
There is some humor and good deal of
truth in these passages. We commend
them to q careful perusal. .,I .....