Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-05-11
Atisftllanepus Rading.
ADVANCES IN FOOD PRICES.
Threatening Situation In the East as Well
as In America.
From tho New York Sun.


From the New York Sun.
Among the important questions
which people are asking just now
is whether the war with Spain is
going to help business or hurt it, and
whether the cost of living will be
materially increased through the same
causes. 1t is fact that great many
of the things used in the household
have become dearer in the past week
or two, and this has led retail dealers
to suppose that the war was going to
advance prices still more. Many house
keepers are already frightened at the
prospects of return of such prices as
existed during the Civil war and for
years following it.
Many remember the enormous pri-
ces which prevailed during those years.
In those days -four was S14 barrel !;
potatoes sold for from SIS to 81 bar
rel, Java coffee was 81 pound, molas-
ses 81 a gallon, butter so cents or more
a pound kerosene oil so cents gal
lon and sugar 20 cents or more pound.
Muslins, which can be bought for or
6 cents yard now, were three or four
times as much, and all the necessities
and luxuries of the household were
dear in proportion. For years now,
and particularly since the hard times
began in 1892, prices have been so low
that living has been very cheap. 1t is
not to be wondered at that the thrifty
housekeeper, who has been getting so
much for her money, should view with
alarm any increase in prices which
would seem to show that any great
advance was to be caused by the war.
Inquiries among representative
dealers in the wants of the household,
made in this city yesterday, would
seem to indicate that any alarm OF
this sort was without foundation, al
though there can be little doubt that
the prices of some things have ad-
vanced, to stay at least for time, and
that these prices and some others may
be still further advanced a few points.
All of these men, however, agree that
the advances with few exceptions have
little or no connection with the war or
apprehensions as to its result, but are
the result of natural causes and would
have taken place whether we had
gone TO war or not. Some of the ad-
vances in price are in fact an indica-
tion of an improvement in the general
condition of trade, and have come
with increases in the value of the pro-
ductions of our own country, which
should be a matter of congratulation
rather than alarm. This is true of the
higher price of flour, and with that an
increase in the market price of all the
cereal products. Wheat, which was
selling for only so cents bushel lit
tie more than a year ago, has gone to
s1.25 bushel, and, although this has
of necessity made -four and breadstuffs
dearer, it has brought hundreds OF
millions of extra dollars into the pock-
cts of our farmers and enabled them
to buy corresponding amounts of the
extra products of all the other work
ers of the nation. It's sale abroad has
brought q great stream of gold into
our treasures from abroad and helped
to strengthen US in every way for the
conflict which is now before us.
The conditions which produced the
war prices of 1868 are not likely soon
to be repeated in this country, and it
is not probable that anything like them
would be repeated, even if the war
with Spain were to last for an indef-
mite time. In those days when -four
went to S14 barrel the north was
maintaining in the field an army Of
100000 able bodied men, who had
been withdrawn from their ordinary
occupations, producing food stuffs and
all the other articles of common use.
We were waging war in our own
country in which the ordinary opera
tions in the field often involved enor.
nous losses and the destruction of food
and equipments even beyond the Or
dinary needs of the army. Besides
this the credit of our nation was so
impaired that our bonds, and hence
our currency, were deprecated until
the dollar in which we reckoned prices
was worth in the markets of the world
only about one-third of its face value.
This fact of itself would have made
prices advance to three times their nor
NAL level, and it is significant fact
that during even the darkest period of
the war most of the staple articles of
use did not advance at all in price
when their value was reckoned by the
gold value of the currency. The
Spanish are already suffering from
such causes both in Cuba and at home,
and they are likely soon to see prices
go almost out of sight, as in the South
ern Confederacy, but the United States
is in no such danger.
The taking away of 100000 or 2O0,-
900 men to war is not likely to inter
fere in any serious degree with the
productive capacity of our country of
7O,OOO,OOO people; nor is their main
tenance, even in these expensive days
of warfare, likely to impair the credit
of the government particle. Still,
we shall probably have "war prices"
to a certain extent, just as the prices
of certain imported goods have ad-
vanced with the imposition of higher
tariff duties. The government has
got to have larger income to meet
the direct cost of war und to pay inter-
oct unon the honds which NAV he