The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-20 00:00:00

THE WESTERN STATES.

<From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CINCINNATI, OHIO, Oct. 3.

T lie election which is to come on nine days from
thi 3 in the State of Ohio will show to what extent
th,ne people are bent on the indefinite prolongation
of the civil war. It is in the meanwhile important
to inquire into the balance between gain and loss
incurred by this western community in consequence
of this momentous event, in which many are still
unwilling to recognise a great national calamity.
At the time of the drawing up of the last census,
in 1860, what member of the North American
Union could be said to vie in prosperity with the
happy State of Ohio ? With an area of 39,954
square miles, and a population of 2,339,500 inhabi-
tants, Ohio enjoyed the first rank in the States for
the prodnetion of wool and Indian corn; it was
exceeded by only one other State in wheat, barley,
cheese, and live stock; it occupied the third place
in the production of oats, potatoes, buckwheat,
grasses, hay, maple, sugar, butter, tobacco, hemp,
silk, and wine. It boasted 3,231 miles of railways.
Its canals yielded from 1846 to 1861 a gross re-
venue of 8,521 dole. ; and the net earnings were in
some years no less than 5,000,000 dols. The State
had a school-fund exceeding 2,796,241 dole., and
gave for educational purposes 3,694,527 dole., con-
secrating to this object a larger sum than was be-
stowed upon it by all the 14 Southern or elavehold-
ing States taken together.
In this marvellously thriving condition, we are
told, the war, far from bringing any perceptible
abatement, has caused a most satisfactory improve-
ment. The " annual statement of the commerce of
Cincinnati" for the commercial year ending August
31, 1863, gives the following value of imports and
exports for the last four years..
Imports.

Exports.

1850-'6O .. 103,347,216 dole. .. 77,037,181 dole,
90.193,133 .. 67,231,126

1860.61 ..
.. 76,449,862
1861-62 .. 103,292,893
1862-63 .. 144,189,213 . 102,397,171
The live stock, which in 1860 was 8,221,481, of
69,583,000 dols., rose in 1862 to
the value of
9,126,937, estimated at 70,463,868 dols. The acres
of land sown with every variety of breadstuffs were,
in 18,60, 45,500,000, yielding 143,600,000 bushels;
1,538,562 acres of meadow land yielded, in the same
y ear, 2,027,000 tons of hay ; 96,254 acres produced
9,365,386 bushels of potatoes, &c. I have been as-
sured that, although the State of Ohio furnished a
contingent of 184,000 men to the national army,
af not one acre of land has fallen out of cultivation."
It is, however, nowhere asserted that one acre has
been tilled out of the great mass of territory which
had. not yet been rescued from the native forest, the
swamp, or the prairie. I learn, also, that from
July, 1860, to July, 1861, 11,233 aliens have been
naturalised ; of these, 5,949 were Germans ; 2,106
were Irish, and the rest Welsh, English, &c. Allow-
ing an equal number for the ensuing year, we should
have an increase of population accruing from foreign
immigration of 22,000 persons at the utmost—
doubtless very far from filling up the gap occasioned
by the drain of the war.
The annual statement above referred to, while
congratulating the State on the great prosperity
enjoyed during the past year, does not conceal the
fact that it was mainly owing to "the vast sums of
money spetst by the Government in the prosecution
of the T.var." The people who thereby made
rapid 'fortunes spent them freely and extrava-
gantly, so that trade flourished and wealth in-
creased with a rapidity and generality before un-
known. "There has been a steady demand for the
luxuries as well as the necessaries of life, and this
has given constant employment to the workshops ;
labour has been scarce and in demand, and higher
Wages obtained than ever before known." The
loweit wages for unskilled labour are from 1 dol.
25c. 'co 2 dels. per diem ; but the salaries of clerks,
foremen, head waiters, and others have not risen in
proportion, so that the real gain was only percep-
tible among those classes out of which the army
has been more largely recruited. 'We know that
coal sells Varoughout the West twice and thrice
higher than, in former years, owing to the difficulty
of finding men to work the mines; and Government
has 'been compelled to impress several hundred
negro slaves in Kentucky to hasten the completion
of the important railway from Lexington, in Ken-
tucky, to Knoxville, Tennessee—vitally important
in a straaegic point of view—in the impossibility of
achieving that enterprise by free labour.
The, main business of Cincinnati and Ohio pro-
vious to the war consisted in its trade with the South,
to w bleb, besides a large part of its vast agricultu-
ral produce, was sent the main bulk of its extensive
manufactures. Besides being the great emporium
for the export of the fruits of the richest soil on
this continent, this stately,well-built, and pleasantly
situated town of Cincinnati employed a great num-
ber of operatives in its workshops, swelling thus the
mass of its population to 161,000 souls in 1860, with
nu increase of 45,000 during the ten previous years.
The Southern trade came, of course, to an end with
the closing of the Mississippi river, bat the capture
of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, though it may lead
to a gradual resumption of trade with the people
ca the borders of the Lower Mississippi, will not
"'the it with the speed and alacrity which some
Paeple anticipated. Indeed, as I have often said,
if the N
North is bent on the utter ruin and dis-
organisation of those Southern countries, the
West Must to a great extent be involved in that
destruction, unless it finds elsewhere new channels
and new markets for its redundant commodities.
From the outbreak of the war to the present day
a vast market was supplied by the Government in
the furnishing of the all-consuming army, and the
h
eastern railways answered the purpose of active
though expe
wasnsive closed
channels, instead of the water-
course,
which
ofOhio are
the Western mer-
chants. The cities
s noti so far from New
York, Philadelphia, and
Washington as those of
Illinois and Missouri, and the h
railway freight from
Cincinnati to those eastern marts, whayowever heavy,
is not so utterly ruinous as it is from Chicago
Louis. Hence, doubtless, this central
or St.
Ohio has been able to weather the storm
h
with '
a
region of
wonderful good fortune hitherto.
u eesnlll".
t
crease in its imports and exports, remarkable
chilly in this last year, which, however, is not- es'°
much owing to the larger quantity of the rnerehan
nearly
dese as to the great advance in price of -
all
home and foreign produce.
terticles of both Take, for
gave this city
or k, which. was formerly the .main staple
instance, p
commodity of this State, and which
Porkopolis." Toe pork crop was
its nickname of "
this year an immense one, and the business done in
pork packing far exceeded that of any previous
season, Yet the trade did not prove profitable, as
the price paid for bogs was too high, notwithstand-
But while this in-
bee the depreciated currency.
jared the dealer, it helped the farmer, "for while
ecie standard was
the price compared with the sp
love, it was, in fact, for all practical purposes high,
as the currency not only paid debts, but enabled him
to hey land at old prices (for
land did not advance),
.and to stock his farm at a but slight advance over
Previous rates." I quote this from
official source!,
because it only confirms the statement: ventured in
One of ray letters from Chicago, that the copious
flood oq greenbacks all over the country was an
im'xiense benefit to the rural population at large,
and bettered their condition, even though
-was too scarce to agri-
cultural enlarge to any extent their
operations.
One of the most bountiful sources of well-being
for this city was to be found in the manufacture of
ready-made clothing, for which the South affbrded
a very probable market. Those engaged in it have
been since the outbreak of the
exclusively in the service of the y?"employed almost
Government and in
the fitting out of the army. In 1860 this branch of
business
employed in the whole State of Ohio 13,000
hands, and produced 16,000,000 dols. worth of goods.
The trade is said to have greatly increased of late,
but I can obtain no statistics of the h •
usthess. All
I know is that Cincinnati alone boasts 51 wholesale
end 80 retail houses engaged in this branch of alne
in-
dustry, and their lofty stores and
warehouses are
emer, the most conspicuous buildings of this city.
No less than 8,000 women and girls are said to End
their sustenance in this siopwork, which is generally
conducted by sharp speculators of German extrac-
tion and of the Jewish " persuasion."
On the other hand, the distillation of spirits, which