The Illinois free trader and LaSalle County commercial advertiser. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1841-1843, 1843-07-28
THE ILLINOIS FREE TRADER.
From Kendall's Expositor.
Home Market.

increases the number OF consumers OF
produce in comparison with the number
Of growers.
Does it necessarily follow, that the in
crease Of consumers is good thing? If
it be, why may not congress pass an act
to protect from destruction crows and
blackbirds, wolves and squirrels, rats and
mice! They are very considerable con-
sumers without being producers. If con-
sumption be good thing, here is a way
to obtain ii without covering 1.-THE body
polite" with "sores" in the shape of
manufacturing cities.
But, say the tariff advocates, "lhe
manufacturing operatives give us some
thing in return" Yes at double prices.
| have ten bushels of wheat which wish
to exchange for articles of clothing.
What boots it TO me, whether the rats eat
up half Of it, OF il be taken from me by
tax on cotton, linen and wooden goods !
Are not the rats just as good consumers
as the manufacturers when they give me
just as good a return?
But if the government ought TO legislate
with view to increase the proportion OF
consumers, there is more cfectual
mode. Force the manufacturers 10 break
in pieces all their machinery of modern
invention. and resort to the primitive
modes of spinning and weaving. They
would then require five hands, probably
ten, for every one now employed, and
thus make an important addition TO the
number Of consumers. But, says the
tariff advocate, "that would greatly in
crease the price of goods" Very well /;
is it not the very end at which you aim
by protective tariff! "Aye: but it
would increase the cost Of manufacturing
them"
Aye, that explains your real motive /;
You want to increase the price of goods
without increasing the cos, Of manuiactu.
RUG them, and thereby add to your pro-
fits. While you talk Of giving employ
menl TO laborers, increasing the number
of consumers, making home market for
farmers, &c. &C., you are constantly in.
Producing machines Of iron, brass and
wood, which neither eat nor drink, to
perform the work of men or women who
do, and sending back our operatives to
the occupations whence they came; or
as in England, turning them out to steal
or starve! Yet, you call on the farmers
and others, to pay an enormous tax to
raise prices and make your machine la
Dor proitable-to protect things Of iron,
brass and wood from competition with
the pauper labor of Europe.
What is the fact! Has the building
up Of Lowell or Nashua increased the
prices Of the farmers wheat or corn in
Ohio, Indiana or Illinois! Every man
knows better Has it increased the pri
&c. of the farmers corn and rye, raised
in their very neighborhnod Every far.
mer fifty years old who lives there, knows
better. lie knows that their prices, ihir-
iy or forty years ago, were higher then
than they are now. Southern and we S.
tern corn and flour have been brought
by means of these very manufacturing
establishments, into competition with
those of the New England farmer, at his
own door. reducing prices there withou
increasing them in the regions whence
the new supplies come. These are no
torious facts-thc strongest of arguments
TO think Of increasing the prices Of ives
tern produce by building up manufactures
and thus increasing the number of domes
tic consumers, is as idle as to think o
affecting the volume of the Mississippi
above or below by throwing the water
over the levee at New Orleans with a
bucket. The production Of that teeming
region is too vast TO be affected by al
operation 80 minute. The Mississippi
must have an ocean to receive the water:
of It's innumcrable fountains, and its val
ley must have world for market. re
create home market for its production:
in New England or elsewhere by Iegjsla
ton, is just about as ludcrous an opera
ton as digging a home reservoir to re
ceive the waters of its mighty rivers.
AS man of the west, we say to tn,
general government. clear out rivers, pro
tect us from piracy and war on the ocean
and give us the world for a market. d.
this, and in half century, we will show
you results never surpassed in earthly
beauty and protecliveness, since Coz
planted the first garden among the fou
rivers of Eden.