Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-06-18
Gbt fretman
MONTPELIER, VT,
WEDNESDAY, JUNE Is, 1873.
Prices,

Prices,
There is more rebellion in Franklin County
now than there was before. The contendiDg
parties are waxing savage as a meatax. BY
that sign indeed one faction hopes to conquer.
The trouble this time is not taxes but meat
The story, in brief, is that year or two ago
the butchers of st. Adams thought their
trade injured and themselves aggri eyed by
the importation of rural veal and beef and
other meats to greater or less extent. The
farmers would come in and 'psddle out y
the solitary calf. How extensive this alarm
ing practice had become we do not know but
at any rate the butchers went to the village
fathers and asked their interference. They
wanted that sort of guerilla meat-carts stop
ped St. Adams had suffered enough from
raids during the war and it was too much to
have them continued in time of peace.
This request of course brought the village
that have worried even greater men than they;
" protection to home industry and 60 free
trade and farmers rights Like other
statesmen they refused to take the bull by
the horns but studied the charter of their
liberties. and concluded that it did not give
them authority to take such high handed
course.
The next step was to procure little pro-
tective legislation. So lawyer was en-
ployed and little bill drawn up, and the
powers OF the village fathers increased, and
of course the legislature knew all about how
much that little bill was to protect the
butchers of St. Adams. 1t is one of the
beauties of abb fishing special legislation that
after job gets through under general law,
everybody has such clear view of it-so
sudden one indeed that its appearance Is
quite dramatic, as in this case.
The legislature having adjourned, and the
SHOWS of winter departed and the voice of the
country peddler heard once more in the streets,
the trustees were again visited cited to the
law in that case made and provided, and
asked to forbid the ruin Of the metropolitan
meat trade. The fact is that St. Adams is
great butter market, and much of her trade
is owing to the popular character of the
town among the farmers of the county. Il
is needless to say that the six or eight butch
ers did not get the protection asked for the
irregular meat carts were not ordered of.
Indignant at their wrongs, and perhaps una
BILE to profit by their business owing to the
competition trey sought to be rid Of, the
butchers" struck shut up shop. 1t was well
for Barnum, yesterday, that he had with him
nearly full regiment of employees when he
entered that furnishing town with a caravan
full of fresh meat Think of the temptation
of kangaroo soup to people whose susie
nance is salt junk !,
It is seldom that in one little performance,
ludicrous even 10 some of its aspects, we have
SO many grave questions involved or sugges-
ted. Who shall set a price? What may
the dealer and consumer dictate each to the
other? What indirect dictatlon may the
dealer exercise by crushing competitors?
And even the beauties of special legislation,
covered nicely in the meal of general grants
of power. are incidentally exemplife1 in the
history of this remarkable unpleasantness.
The most costly method yet discovered for
regulating the price OF an article is the
" strike The greater tho number who
participate in the strike and the weaker the
individual members, the more;dlsassrous the
result. Ltjis too often the wrong way taken
to accomplish right end. We do not deny
the right to strike where the, action consists
in single or combined refusal to furnish the
thing owned for given price, whether the
thing be labor, coal, meat or wheat. Every
man may ask his price for w1at he has to
sell and refuse to sell unless the price is gwen.
The coal dealer may rise on coal, the dairy
man on butter, the laborer on day wages,
and SO on to the end of the chapter Ii is
true that where such increase is dem an1e1 by
a great combination there often follows COM
mercial disaster and individual suffering but
there is no royal road to eise of life more
than there is to learning. Tnere never will
be found sovereign panacea for all the dit
fereuces between buyer and seller in this
world Arbitration instead of war may
smooth, but cannot wholly remove all the
rough edges. There will be demands for
higher prices to the end of time, but we hope
that what are technically called strikes will
give way to better considered methods of OBJ
tanning the increase. The cost and poor
policy, if not the wrong Of the prevllent
means has been pretty we'll es tablished,
A late increase in the price Of coal at the
mines has attracted the general attention Of
consumers throughout the country. Remem-
bering the sudden rises of years past, they
look forward with some foreb ding to the
result of the present evident speculative ten
dency This anxiety has not been quieted
by the late excursion of many New England
dealers and their consultations with the pro-
prietors of the mines. People do not object
to paying such prices for coal as will remu
nerate those engaged in its produ ctIon, but
they have not forgotten that the mine owners
are virtually monopolists, and that they have
heretofore had the name of melting strikes
among the operatives in order to reduce the
amount produced. 50 making scarcity in
market and an increase in price. AMI at the
same time throwing the blame upon the en-
ployes instead of taking it to themselves.
While we doubt the good sense of the few
men at St. Adams, in undertaking to force
compliance with their wishes by refusing to
continue their trade, their right to do SO is
not disputed, 1t is indeed the same thing
that the present combination in the coal mar
ket threatens all New England with, and
which the late visit of coal dealers to the
Pennsylvania coal mines has brought SO vivid