Year: 1868




tio2.


The Prices or Coal and Dreadstuns.


The ups and downs of trade could not be
better illustrated than by reference to the scale
Of prices for coal snd breadstuffs at this time.
While we find that the price Of the former has
gone up enormously within few weeks-say
from six and half dollars to nine and half
per ton--we refer to the kinds commonly used
by families-the price for breadstuffs has re-
ceded largely in the Western markets, with
prospect that the downward momentum win
be felt by consumers here In due time. We
can very readily account for the reduction in
the market value of breadstuffs in the West.
It is owing to the grasping and boarding dispo-
sition of holders Of grain, who have been bor-
rowing from the East for long time upon the
credit Of their stored up wealth, but, owing to
the existing financial tightness, are unable to
borrow further and are obliged to throw their
grain upon the market In such quantities as to
create glut and consequent fall in prices.
But why coal should rise 90 greatly In price at
this time is almost unaccountable. It is
problem which can only be solved by ascribing
it to the combinations Of greedy speculators-
to absolute conspirAcies among men who, If
they were workingmen acting the same way to
secure an advance Of wages, would be
brought before the courts or made
to suffer and their families, perhaps, perish
by a prolonged deprivation of employment
1t is absurd for these coal monopolists to plead
that the reduced supply occasions the present
advance. It is insulting to the common sense
Of consumers to affirm that the strikes at the
mines last spring or summer produce de-
fciency at this time. These things were known
four weeks ago as well as they are now, and IT
they were operating upon the supply then why
was not the price correspondingly advanced
and maintained up to this time? No. 1t is
nothing but the exigency of people laying in
their winters stock at this juncture, thereby
creating temporarily lively business in the
yards, that has led these coal conspirators to
advance the price 80 outrageously. Our ad-
vice to consumers Is to stop purchasing while
coal is at the present exorbitant rate, believing
that 1t will be less in the month of January
than it is now in the latter part Of October.



Pacific Indications OF tho Latest Austrian


and Prussian News.


History shows that there is often something
suspicious in the cry Of peace peace on the
lips Of European rulers This cry is sometimes
uttered most frequently and most loudly on the
very eve of war. But in modern times the
pressure Of public sentiment bears more di-
rectly than ever on the minds Of royal person.
ages and gives shape and color to their acts and
their speeches. The disposition of the powers
that be to quiet popular apprehensions in view
Of threatened war is manifested by the pacific
indications Of our latest news from Austria
and Prussia. The Paris Moniteur, the official
organ of the Emperor Of the French, hastens
Austria will not sign the recent Rechsrath
Army bill, adding that the Austrian Minister Of
War has said publicly that Austria Is arming
only in proportion to the extent of her popula~
ton. kilograms from Vienna give the an
nouncement by the Ministry that the interpreta-
ton put on the late speech Of Baron Beust ia
false, and that the policy Of Austria is peace.
They also state that the Diet has passed bill
authorizing the government to recruit forty
thousand additional soldiers, Baron Beust
having made formal assurance that the men
to be enlisted will merely I'LL up the deficiency
in the standing army and not swell 1t above
the number fixed by Law.


The news from Prussia 10 equally tranquil
lizing 1t is asserted on semi official authority
that the speech OF King William, by whom the
session Of the North German Diet is to be for
mally opened on the 4th Of November, will be
Of reassuring and pacific character.