The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-05
THE LAST YEARS BUSINESS.

Losses the General Rule-.-The Pro-
cess OF ShrinkaGe-.-The Great Ale
uaeut of the COuntry---The Cities
| Oyercrowded ana the Country De-
populated---The Conditions of a
! Real and Fictitious Prosperity Com
trnsted.
From The Cincinnati Gasetts.
! In a commercial point of view, the
wear 1866 has been very unsatisfac-
| tory one. The business man may. con-
! slider himself fortunate who stands bet
! ter, or as well to-day as he did year
ago. Losses have been the rule, profits
the exception. The process of shrink.
age has been severely pressed. This
has occurred, too, without any
very large contraction of the currency.
| We must look, therefore, in some other
direction than the money market for
the cause of the depression OF values.
Partly this is reaction from the ex-
/ traordinary imitation that prevailed
| but mainly it is the result ofthe fictitious
| character of the wealth that was based
| on an irredeemable and superintendent
currency. During the war the country
seemed TO be increasing in wealth,
when, in fact, two million men had been
turned from producers to destroyerS OF
property. Instead, therefore of having
| gained in real wealth, the country has
been falling behind. The country has
been in n measure deserted for the cities.
| The latter are overcrowded, while the
former is not half occupied. There
have been too many traders and not
near enough ploughmen. This is at the
bottom Of the prevailing troubles. The
| latter, it is true, have been seriously
aggravated by the management OF our
national finances. There has been too
much secrecy and too much OF one man
power connected with the latter, and
| H., hot
the policy is to be, are unable to make
calculations for the future. In so far
as our troubles are traceable to this
cause they will be removed by the
action of Congress, and it is, therefore,
not probable that the extreme depres-
sion which has lately prevailed Will
continue. Besides, prices have already
declined so largely, that there cannot
| be, in the aggregate, any further heaVy
| depreciation of values for the present.
| It is more likely that we shall have,
with the establishment of settled
| financial policy by Congress, another
period of speculation. But this Will
not remove permanently the great un,
deriving cause of distruSt. The removal
of the latter will be the work of time.
Recovery, too, must be preceded by
reversal of the general order of things;
that is, there must be greater proper
ton of producers to consumers. We
nave now De1Ore us the SLarllluR laCl OF
the great wheat growing States of Ohio,
Indiana, and Kentucky importing
wheat and flour from the Northwest.
This is due largely, of course,
to the disasters that occurred to
the crops last season, but it is
also attributable in great de-
gree to the deficiency of labor in the
agricultural districts. This evil must
be corrected. It will not be corrected
willingly, we presume; but there is
rapidly growing up a necessity that
will bring about the needed changes.
The immediate fruits of a commercial
pressure, are an excess of men seeking
employment in large cities. The next
step is an exodus from the city to the
country. This will increase the num-
! Der of producers, and diminish the
number of consumers. Then orr i'm
ports will fall off, and we shall have u
larger surplus OF domestic produce for
export. When this is brought about
we may begin 10 talk about real pros
perity, but not before. We have had
| fictitious prosperity for several years,
and our prosperity will continue to be
fictitious until our productions are
largely increased.