The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-16
FRIDAY, MARCH IS, 1856.
The Wnrehonsing Srstem.


facturers in New England, Senator SPBAGUE,
is said to have been prepared in the Treasury
Department. We suppose, therefore, that it
is all right and intended to operate bene-
ficially on our finances, commerce, and in
dUstry. 1t, at all events, extends the time
for Withdrawing merchandise from any public
or private bonded warehouse, which is a good
measure, provided ii tends to bring the goods
into the market either for consumption in
this country, or for expectation.
Be all this as it may, however, there can be
no doubt that any system OF legislation which
enables importers OF foreign commodities to
Overstock the country with foreign products,
and then to house them under bonds, and SO
hold them at pleasure before paying duties, is
susceptible OF being greatly abused to the
injury of the home producers of like mer-
chandise, and to the whole people, who are
the consumers gift. 1t is well and very gene
rally known, that there is class of men who
make a regular business OF controlling the
market for certain indispensable neeessaries
of life, such as sugar, coffee, -four, grain, and
the like, and who, in order to carry cut their
cles, and then store them away, thereby
creating a fictitious scarcity. Prices are in
that manner raised above a natural level, and
kept above it, AT the expense of consumers,
who are made to suffer seriously In the cost OF
what they consume; and thus an eAtire com
munity is subjected to gross imposition, for no
other reason than that few rapacious specu-
lators are able and willing to reap enormously
inordlnate profits on goods Of which they
cause an apparent dearth in the market.
This species of monopoly is Of most odious
character, and has often inflicted very severe
hardship on the people. 1t sometimes hap
pens, of course, that the spectators are
caught in their own trap, and suffer accord-
ingly. BY some unforeseen accident the mar
ket suddenly declines for one or all of the
commodities they are holding back and then
in order to save thsmsslve. from total loss,
they are obliged, all at once, to let go the
entire stock in reserve. Under this iRstanta-
neous flood the market goes down to the
lowest possible figure, the zero Of prices, and
the consequence is that the monopolists are
not alone heavy losers, but that honest and
innocent merchants are also made to suffer no
inconsiderable loss on the smaller stccks on
which they were doing legitimate trade.
The market is thus kept always uncertain,
subj cted to sudden and violent fluctuations,
and all regular commerce in particular class
OF great staples of universal necessity is
seriously deranged and embarrassed.
Another bad effect of the warehousing
system, when abused in the manner described,
is, that merchandise Of a Perishable nature is
kept from consumption until it is very much
deteriorated in quality, and then sold at
prices much aboye its real value Take -four
for example. Many of our readers mast be
aware that the market price OF that article has
ruled at nine, ten, and twelve dollars per
barrel at periods when the crops of wheat
were abundant and there was every reason
able expectation that -four would be cheap.
And that expectation would not have been
disappointed il the farmers had not kept their
grain back with view to force prices up, or
the spectators in flour had not bought it Nd
by contract, and held it from market with the
same design. 1t has happened within the
last few years that -four was selling at from
ten to fifteen dollars barrel in this city,
when thousands of barrels OF it were stacked
up in storehouses, and actually spelling.
Other goods Of like kind are injured in the
same way, and the practical result of the pro-
cess is that the public are compelled to pay
exorbitant prices for articles whose fitness
for consumption is much impaired by prac-
tee which makes things unnecessarily dear
by making them artiicially scarce.
But this is not ALL The warehousing
policy is liable to another objection. We
presume that duties on foreign goods, no
matter when paid, are collected in accord
ance with the revenue law prevailing or in
force at the date Of their importation. If this
be so, then it must be obvious that under the
warehOusing. law, whenever there 10 pros
p0ct of an increased tariff on certain goods,
vast quantities may be imported, put in store,
and kept there until after the tariff is raised,
and then thrown on the market to the preu-
dice of goods of the same kind that are sub
sequently brought into the country for imme-
diate sale under higher duties The Treasury
must thus be robbed, and legitimate COM
merce injured,
On the whole, any laws which encourage
over-importatlons Of foreign merchandise
and the buying up Of home products with a
view to monopolizs the market and affect
prices unnaturally, are of evil tendency, and