Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-08-12

Scarcely a day passes that we are not
INQUIRED Of concerning the probable ~
4,Irs of the wool market, and as 10 Wneta-
erit is best to hold the clip now ready
for the buver. or 20 submit 70 reduc-
tiOn Of from Eve to eight cents from the
low price Of 1860. We have several times
indicated our opinion, but propose now
10 give reason for the faith that IS IN US
when the war commenced in 1861, il
was estimated that there were about I6.-
600 looms running on woollen or cotton
and wOolen goods. The new avenues Of
trade which that year and the next oP-
ened proved the supply far below the
demand. and what had been fair bu-
siness in 1858. g and 60 became re-
markably good business in 1861 and g.
Wool went up from 50 cents in 1860 to
8Ia pound in 1868. and az that price
more money was made Tor as muchl as
had ever been made in any single year
in the woolen business. In fact, almost
every man who made woollen goods IN
'63 and "a, and did not hold them till
the great fall consequent upon the ter
mination Of the war was made rch-
OfcouFse as soon as il was ascertain
ed that nothing paid like making Gov
ernment blankets, or cloth for blOuses,
command ransacked the country in
search of water-power, and finding #.
and buying It, many times at fabulous
rates, began TO build woollen-Tnills, till,
in 1865 and '66, the number Of looms
had increased from 5000 60 between
10000 and 10000; the last 10000 cost
ing. with what aPpertained 20 them
more than three times as much as those
in operation prior to 1860.
When these mills were ready to begin
the manufacture Of goods, the war was
over, and the demand occasioned by It
had ceased. and from that day to this.
seven eighths Of all the wooIlen-mills in
the country have been run at a loss ;
nearly one-haf Tor quite} have sunlzen
all their capital, and been sold to pay
current debts, till to-day there are less
looms in operation than there were in
1860. and even these are not paying ION
an average) more than their running ex-
penses.
As a sample Of the wreck. we are pre-
pared 70 direct parties 70 mills that cost
over 100000. thar can be bought for
10000 1--WE think lessl, and to others
that cost over 100000, that are offered
by the creditors for SIz5 900. and would
be sold for SIoo, 600, if purchaser
Z
the stockholders in both instances losing
every dollar they expended in building
the mills and buying the machinery.-
And these are but samples Of scores oil
experiments of the same kind.
Men who could wait and keep their
help together have waited, but waited in
vain, for better times, until it has come
to pass that fortunes built up during the
war out of the sale Of woollen goods
(shoddy. some say) are wasted, and the
men once millionaires are again poor.
Meantime, wool has been going down,
for the reason that, melted thereto by
the offer Of dollar a pound, farmers
went into sheep. and no stock in the
country can be as soon doubled or quad
rupled as this. There has been anc
still is more wool in the count v thar
the country needs, and until the equili
brium is restored until the population
takes the goods that are. now made, anC
pays therefor fair profit to the manu-
facturer: until the supply of the raw ma
teriai is less than demand, as il will no
be in the year 1870 Tin our opinion)
wool will not go higher; and we there
fore advise our farmer friends to sell a
the market price, whatever it is, rather
than hold over. Il is possible that i
viii be higher in six months than it i:
to-day, but not probable.
OF course the fall in gold and the Cd
erations Of the tariff have some effec
upon the wool market. but the great Law
Of supply and demand, the workings o
which were never more palpable thar
with regard to the matter we have con
sidered. underlies all values, in coun
Try where every one is not only free tC
embark in any business that pays, bu
generally a6ks to do it.-HAayaH 4a1
70Nse