The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-03-14
OUR business men are nothing daunt-

OUR business men are nothing daunT-
ed by the unfavorable aspect of fuan-
ciaI affairs. Our wholesale dealers are
determined that their trade shall not
suffer for wantof supplies, at least we
should think 50 nom the large number
of dry goods boxes piled up in front OF
their premises. Our retail merchants
are also keeping up their stocks very
full, and are constantly receiving addt-
tIOual supplies. J. >. Rhodes IL Co. are
getting themselves pretty well striight-
ened out. They were yesterday re-
ceivinX goods, and in few days Jacob
Will be himself again. After his long
rest his many friends Will be glad to
greet his short hair and genial lace in
the trade again.
our manufacturers have not got fully
into operation. The nail men nave not
yet come to an understanding with
their employees, and the probabilities
are that they will not for some time
yet. The fOundrymen have all com
menced operations, their hands going
to work at a reduction o! ten per cent.
on former wages, although IL is but IL
short time since they struck for higher
wages.
The days of strikes in every branch
of business are about over for the pres
ent. Prices of labor cannot be governed
by resolutions, and the fact that wages
Tor several years went on increasing,
has led many men, indeed we might
say most men, of every branch of the
mechanical industries of the country,
into the error ofsupPOsing these success
sIye advances were mainly attributable
10 the influence OF the various Unions
formed among the skilled mechanics.
These Unions We're and are good in
sutuJiun, but every thinking man can
see that their influence was after all
buta drop in the bucket, in affecting
the advances in the price of labor, and,
that bring all the ingenuity we can TO
Dear upon anything for which price
"A paid, we are ever running against
that Inevitable philosophy of supply
and demnnd. During tue war. mechan-
les wages advanced because they were
scarce and the product of their industry
in greut demand. When the war closed,
although there was an increase of la
borers, wages still advanced because
the country was almost entirely de-
pendent upon Itself for its neceSsarigs
and its luXuries. The demand, there
fore, for the products OF labor still
far exceeded the ability to supply and
the prices of living were increased.
The mechanics every now and then
struck for higher wages, and, prices
of products tending upward, they al
ways got the advance. just now things
are on the downward turn; most of the
Injuries aud many of the necessities
Of life have fallen nightly; complica-
tious in money have practically re-
dnced the volume in circulation; for
eigu competition is coming to boar
heavily on much of our industry and
the same law that put wages uF, to tbs.
present rates, will put them down to u
rate corresponding with the great law,
and constitutions, bylaws aud resolu-
tons to the contrary will have no more
effect to hinder the operation OF the
law in the one case than they had to
advance its operation in the other.
The mechanics of the country have.
enjoyed their fair share orthe pros perity
OF their employers, and when the ne
cessites of the case require the price of
labor to be reduced, or the lubOrer to be
thrown out Of employment altogether,
they will find the better part of wis
dom to be that of the moulders, who
went TO work ut q small reduction on
their former wages. Contraction OF ex-
Penditures is something that every man
who works for n salary or for hire
IN any way, is bound to look straight in
tue lace, and nothing so prepares him
Tor IL aS common sense view of trade
and its surroundings. Rctreuchtuent.
should be the motto of every man,
woman and child in this country, so
that we may get down in safety from
the pinnacle Of high prices into the val
Ieys'where there IS gold and silver in
abundance.