The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-11-07

The Decline IN COTTON anu Snttoh
GOo,IS---Thc Price Of the staple he
fore and since the Har.--Thc DePtes-
sInE InfIuenee at work.
Prom The Nelo York Round Tube.
In addition 10 the causes
which We have named in order to ac-
count for the recent dec ine, there are
others as potent, and not the least
among them is the conservative feeling
which is daily spreading abroad in this
country with regard to expenditure.
People on all sides are beginning 10 be
careful about money. In truth they
have less to spend, while business Ags
and profits dwindle, while events at
Washington are uncertain and the price
OF gold is doubtful. The cost of living
is exIravagantly high, and the prudent
are disposed 10 retrenCh. If we look
abroad and add to this the politi-
cal condition OF Europe, the sCanty
harvest in England, the very I'M
common distrust in all CONNER
cial and banking circles there, so
great that money is drug on the Sc
curity OF gold bars at one and one half
per cent, per snnum, aud without such
collateral cannot be had at all; with the
Bourse in Paris in ferment; the Credit
Mobiliere with its millions fastening
LO"AIuS Il cEdsuT the 1Ohuh Ol
gorged with idle coin; California wheat
selling in Liverpool at seventeen shil-
lings per Genital; riots in Manchester;
prisoners tried in its courts with shack
les on them while under arrest on mere
suspicion; heavy failures in Liverpool,
among the rest the Royal Bank with an
Indebtedness OF over four million
pounds sterling; no confidence or cour-
age anywhere; how can II be expected
that cotton should be dearer? The
whole world is against it; and ruinous-
ly low as it is, for the people who pro-
duce 1t, there seems a lower
depth 10 come. In this country,
had not the war impoverish-
ed very large class of its
consumers, cotton would not probably
! be to-day at its present price; but war
is always destructive to industry, and
although few thrive by ii the many
must inevitably suffer. While we
write there are thousands of planters
in this country who are selling the pro-
duct of their years labor for less money
than they put in the ground, helpless
and Departing, unable TO refund the
| loans made them to till the soil, and
amidst the constant cheeTlessness OF
the political aspect of their lives, living
upon the Darest hope of the future.
For instance, it is fact that in Georgia
to-day planters sell their cotton, that's,
lle dNtThke EIOD Vi AutlI AZ
about ten cents per pound in currency.
The Government, with rigor which is
quite unworthy any generous ad-
Yersary, taxes them two and one
halt cents per pound, a tax which
Is simply ruinous. The interest
upon the money which the planters
borrowed last spring to put the seed in
/ the earth is a great one, AS must neces-
sdrily De the case in all countries which
have been devastated by war, and con-
| sequently Impoverished and, in short,
| eighteen cents per pound in New York
pays the Georgia planter, after all
/ charges are reimbursed not over
twelve cents per pound in currency, or
about eight cents in gold, for his crop,
command even that price. These
figures are low, and as Manchester and
the Continent will use the American
staple instead of Surats at low cost,
aud India cotton must follow our
own down in the markets OF the
not far distant when India will lem
poraTily withdraw from the English
market to great extent, and prices Of
our own staple possibly improve. AT
present, however, our own spinners are
not protiting by it, low as it is. They
cannot sell the goods which they make,
except at IA less price to-day than "a
week ago. They buy sparingly and
cautiously, work as few hands as pos
sible, and like the most of us, live in
hope.
Finally, reason which might not
occur to all of our readers in thinking
about the recent revolution in cotton Is
this, tue South, particularly Texas,
where the best cotton in this country is
grown-other than Sea Island, which is
produced from special seed-has just
suffered under pestilence which
spread to New Orleans, thence to Mo-
bile, and finally to Memphis. These
four points are the most important of
all domestic sports in the trade. While
people were dying by hundreds daily
in these places there could hardly be
much trade.