Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1874-10-10
NJ [NING JOU RN A l..
j. Ii. ODER, Editor.
FRosTBURG, MD, OCTOBER 10, 1874.

prices tney say tney are conpelleu W
demand, and tradition asserts that
some of them have been known to
blush at the enforced extortion
Beef and pork sell at an average Of
seyenty-fve percent. over foot price
a large profit somewhere when we
consider there is no scarcity of sup
plies. In the west the complaint is
the market is overstocked. What
sense is there, then, in bacon at six
teen and twenty cents? and -four at
eight, nine and ten dollars with
western granaries bursting and poor
prospect for expectation eastward ?
There is something radically wrong
somewhere. With augmenting strin-
genoy it would seem provisions should
correspondingly depreciate in price.
This is the case with manufactured
fabrics; why not in the actual nee
essaries In the prices Of store goods
generally people have little to COM
plain of. Clothing and groceries are
as low as we can desire; in fact, the
merchants cannot put them lower and
cover expenses. Where is the diff
Guilty, then? Various causes have
been assigned, all involving some
clue to the origin of the disproportion
between the primary and secondary
necessaries. By some it is charged to
over-production, but the rule fails to
work both WAYS. Then, to over-con-
sumption with the same fatal result,
and so on. Those nearer to correct
solution assert the hig pressure char
acter of our progress and business
during the past nine or ten years
how values of all descriptions have
become corpulent and unwieldy, and
how the balloon of paper money has
become unmanageable and flown off
with the aeronauts. Meanwhile, spec
ulation and freight tariffs have been
rife in widespread and ruinous plum
der of Notwithstanding margins
where all should be lat par" and alb
sorbing the profits of production by
carriage.
We might elaborate this catalogue !;
we might further show how hard a
thing it is to resist or control the pa
per wings of the dragon, money; how
legislators have, adopted false princi-
pies, enriching bond-holders on the
one hand, while poverty sucks in the
solvent classes on the other how many
of them cannot tell why financial cri-
ses or panics occur, or even why
prices rise and fall. But the question
might recur-are laboring men alto
gether free from responsibility for
unhealthy financial conditions? We
shall not refer to the charge some
times alleged that they do the major
ity of balloting-that too often through
them money buys the popular will.
But rather ask do they not generally
live beyond their income buy more
than they need ?-consume all they
can, and waste the remainder? If
we may Judge the great American
community by the habits of the peo-
Pile of this section, this is the revela-
ton of extravaganza.
We say this is generally true.
There are numerous deserving excep-
tions-exceptions which, if universal
ly and persistently copied, would rev.
olutionize the prospects and fortunes
of thousands. But how ineffective
their economy when the entire system
of making and saving is defeated by
the reckless transactions of the major
ity. The meats, groceries, clothing,
ETC., which go to waste by over-pur-
chase, and the supply of many arti6-
cial wants of fashion and appearance,
stimulate false demand which truly
economical neighbors must pay for.
If extravaganza will pay sixteen
cents for beef and forty cents for but
ter, will the butcher and farmer sell
them for less money to economy?
Or, if nickel watches and jewelry are
bought at auriferous prices at the ex-
pense of real wants, profitable invest
ments, or existing Indebtedness, can
we murmur at the demands for huge
premiums on long and uncertain
credits With such fnanciering
how can We hope to see values equal
lied? How can the cash buyer ever
obtain redress from the tariff impos-
ed by bloated credit prices? And
how can trades, concomitant with or
great industry, with fierce local and
foreign competition, flourish or exist
IN o,,r midst