The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-06-23

they are all farmers for labor must be divided to
surpsy mutual wants.
Ne arc manufacturers as we'll farmers-that |
Is our present condition; and what Is the effect
produced by our labor upon the price of such artl'
cIes as we fabricate Here is the great point IN !
controversy. Those opposed to us say, they are !
dearer. aad complain of the burden; we think |
there is little for this complaint, and beheVe
that every who examines into the subject with
candor, having single determination to reach the
truth, will soon be convinced, that the doctrine
which is maintained that duties are necessarily
taxes, is a radical l desire that the matter
should be seen as it is. We manufacture woollens,
and so do the English. They supplied both their
own and our demands until we began to cothe our
selves The peace has increased their number OF
laborers in all branches of industry, as is admitted
by the gentleman from South Carolina, and oil
course the amount of goods annually produced is
increased. While this process has been making
its way in England, we have invested large capl-
tai in the woollen trade also and employ proba
bly, more than an hundred thousand laborers In the
manufacture of woollen cloths. Nothing can be
evident than that the increased labor OF Eng
| land, combined with our own, must greatly aug
ment the amount of goods thrown annually into the
market What is the effect The markets are hil-
ed to repleton and prices fall. And why do prices
fall Because increased consumption is re-
qured to take off the SUPPLY man has ten dol
lars, which he can spare from his earnings to buy
must content himself with that, but If It will buy
ten yards it contributes more largely to his COM
fort and happiness This illustrates the ordinary
, cneratons of business As prices decline, con-
sumption increases because the public have ability
to buy more What | have said of woollens is
equally applicable to cottoRs, leather hats, glass.
and all the other manufactures, which employ a
kaH&bsr' 81 Iaborers and the increased supply of
| goods, which forces the value downward, ana THE
same principle has been operating upon agricultu-
raj products, until it has brought them down where
they are, and the value of land with them. 1t is
plenty, and not want, that Expresses the world it
j is the want of markets and not the want of mer-
! chandize.
! While English labor is at work with great actvi-
ty, ours is no less Industrious Ii matters not with
what power our labor bears upon theirs, because
! they work, as the gentleman from South Carolina
SAYS, for bread and must work on, starve, if wa
ges run down to penny day and the less pay
they get, the harder they must work to support
] themselves: pressure upon them, therefore, by
severe competition diminishes the value of capital
and labor, but does not tend materially to diminish
the quantity of goods annually made. There can
be no division of English labor. They have
no wild lands to flee to, refuge from starvation,
nor can they drop one branch of manufacturing and
enter into another to any great extent for the value
OF labor has as strong tendency to equalize ITSELF
as water has to come to level and the operation
of this principle has already filled all employments
or cotton, whatever may be the pressure felt from
our pursuing the business, so long as the employ
ment will Owe bread to the laborer all they can
do IS to sell goods cheap by reducing the price of
labor, and realizing less profit on capital. Their
destiny is fixed, and they must be our competitors
There is mystery, therefore, in the decline of
cotton and woollen goods. The acting Principle is
the same that reduces the fare in opposing lines of
STEAMBOATS, and stages. 1t would scarcely have
been credited few years ago. that the fare of a
~ nrz tn han Woud hn
duced from six to dollar, and the business be
continued; nor would prophet have gained Gre
dence, who, ten years ago, should have foretold,
that cottons would now be purchased for six cents,
as good as were then selling for twenty-five cents
He who can understand that ten men can per-
form more service than FIVE need not be at a loss
for reasons to explain the decline in the value of
cotton and woollen goods. 1t is the competition of
labor-the increased production of the article-a
competition which English labor cannot shun, and
which they must be content to meet under every
disadvantage, unless they and adversaries here
can succeed IN breaking down manufacturers.
This is hope plain and intelljgible SsXf Of
and leave gentlemen to settle the question for
themselves, whether the system of revenue is a
system of bounties and taxes, grinding down the
poor, and robblng the rich, as has been repre-
: scented.
[ | will now ask the attention of the Committee to
another view of the subject The doctrine ad-
vanced by the gentleman from South Carolina is
tire revolution in trade for he proposes to appro-
pirate the markets of this country to the use of the
planter, to enable him to sell such merchandise as
he may receive in pay for COTTON rice, and tobac-
CO. 1t of course aims at the destruction, not of
cotton and woolen establishments alone but of all
manufactures, or his object will not be attained.
The purpose seems to be to drive home COMPETE
ton out of the market to give place to foreign
goods and this cannot be accomplished short of the
destruction of manufac.uring-for while we con-
tinue to make goods, we shall be competitors for
the market. Suppose the object of the gentleman
should be accomplished, and all the population en-
I gagged in the manufacture of cotton, wool, hemp,
leather furniture, salt nails, cutlery, and the
merous other branches, which | need not name,
should be turned out of their employments and
forced back upon the soil for subsistence, and all
( the capital employed in these arts should be sacr-
feed! What would be the effect upon the trade
! and prospects of the country The first effect
would be to depopulate the north for when these
( occupations cease, the farmer will cease to have
any object to cultivate the soil, as he will have no
market for the products of his labor. And can
assure the gentleman from South Carolina that If
the south were to have undisputed possession of
our market, under such circumstances, they would
have but miserable prospect of thrift in it. for we
should have no means of paying for their imported
I merchandise.
The next obvious effect would be to diminish
the number of persons, and the amount of capital
engaged IN manufacturing for while we dismiss
al Vut own popuiatoh from these pursuits, Eng
land cannot increase the number of her laborers
All who work for living obliged to labor now,
and to the utmost extent of their power because
labor Is cheap, and hands that work for bread can
not be idle. There would therefore be clear
dimnuton of laborers, equal to the number of per-
sons engaged in such employment in this country
II follows, that less quantity of goods would be
produced, and prices would rise, while our ability
/ to buy would be diminshed-because our labor
would cease to be productive. If the gentleman
from South Carolina imagines the South would
reap such profits from this state of things as has
been represented, he Is mistaken for another rea-
son. II his policy makes labor and capital Of no
value in one part Of the Union, while it may be
employed to great advantage in another the popu-
lation be Expresses will, in sefdefence, and from
necessity, become competitors for the profits of
good business. The labor and capital Of the north
and east will be carried into the business of the
south until cotton rice and tobacco are brought as
low bY standardization as nther anricnItnraI NJ