Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1846-11-12
HONE AND FOREIGN MARKETS..

! Truth be made known and embraced, thai the
advocates Of Free Trade have imbibed such
an overweening conceit Of their own ways and
such a contempt for the views of their oppo-
nents. Ii disquallies them for acting well
their part in the great controversy of the age.
| We Protecuonists do not disirust the sincerity
I OF the mass OF our opponents we are familiar
with the arguments and considerations on
which their convictions are founded; we ad-
init that they are speclous and plausible; bat
we think there is a view of the question pro
I founder than theirs, which is the true view,
and that this view regards man in all his rela-
tons, and not merely as an eating and trading
animal-that il regards Industry not merely as
the means Of covering his back and filing his
stomach. but as an essential clement Of and
! impulse TO the Education, Intellectual Deyel-
opment and Mental Progress Of a People
| But all this is Greek or iummery in the view
of our opponents, who habitually represent all
that we offer as impelled by monopoly" stu
pldity, ignorance or sofdid selhshness Such
is the drift of an able essay in "Wednesday 5
.J0u8Gt # Commerce, Of "a Citizen OF the
! World" who marshalls and manipulates (hon-
estly, we doubt not a lot OF facts and figures
in such way as 10 prove Protection houl-
| bic nightmare that destroys all Enterprise and
! Improvement wherever ii is tolerated. The
1 following paragraph is a fair sample of his
logic:
81 have lately seen articles in support Of
monopoly, urging upon the people the impor-
lance Of securing consumers OF their produce
at home. | have 10 learn what difference II
can make to the producer, whether his pro
| duce is consumed al home or abroad. Those
tina, will give him the best price, are the pur-
chasers he seeks. AT home his land worth
$50 has to compete with other land Of similar
value, but in England he completes with land
worth $3.50"
And scl1) is the land worth $3.50 per acre in
/ Lancashire that is worth but $50 in Genesee
| County2 Is il not in part because the British
farmer has consumers Of his products in abun-
dance at his door, while the ioui Of Genesee
must seek a market in Eugland2 Suppose
Manchester and Leeds We're located in the
/ C;enesee valley would not land there be worth
I far more than il now is Compare The pri-
ces Of first-rale land in Richard or Starke
/ County, Ohio, with like land ten miles from
/ Cincinnati or Pittsburgh.
| Bullet US QortEe hundrcth time) state ''what
4 difference" there is 10 the Farmer between
an ample Home Market and one mainly loca.
ted across half a continent and whole ocean,
such as a Wisconsin or Iowa farmer will have
in the absence Of Home Manufactures. We
hold that an ample and convenient Home
/ Market. such as would result from the iabFica-
ton in cur own country Of the Cloths, Wares.
/ Silks, Wines, sc. sc. we now purchase from
/ Europe, would be better for our Farmers THAI
a Foreign market, for these reasons;
( |. Because a distant market is necessarily
precGriops, tluctuating market, depending too
much on failures, caprlces and potato rotS
abroad. In our boyhood for example, the
Farmers OF New Hampshire were much adj
dictel TO the Hop culture. for which their soil
was deemed very favorable. The produce
was mainly exported, of course. One year
/ Hops would fetch forty cents a pound and
cash would be abundant; the next year they
would be down to ten cents. and we have
known them to sell at Sherii's sale for less
than tr0 cents We need not say that farm
crs hy hundreds were made bankrupt by the
Hop culture, und have generally abandoned
il. Yet with an adequate market Of consump-
ton at hand. hardly any department Of Agri-
cultural Industry could be more stable and lu-
cratiye.
Q. Because reliance on Foreign Market
confines the Farmer to the production oft,co or
three crem staples instead OF encouraging him
10 vary and diversity his products. The far
mer Of central Illinois, for instance, can now
sell his wheat at 20 to 50 cents a bushel, and
that Is cash article, but he can raise little else
that win bring money at all. Were he 10 pro-
duce Flav, Potatoes, Garden Vegetables. But
ter, Poultry, sc. &c. beyond the wants Of his
own family-or Fruit after the fruit-orchafds
around him have come into bearing he Will
find them unstable as brush fence except at
a ruinously low price, if they will command
cash at ALL But the farmer Of Massachusetts
or England can sell all these, or any thing
else best adapted to his soil or taste, at his own
door, and Tor a good price in cash. so the
Illinois Farmer soon Will If we can have
steady and adequate Protection TO our branches
Of industry most exposed 10 Foreign competi-
ton. Female labor. and indeed labor gpner-
ally, is cheaper in the West than in the East;
so is Cotton; so is Wool; SO is Water or Steam
power in extensive localities. Give us ten
years. steady Protection, and Illinois will not
send to Massachusetts, for her substantial Cot
ton and Woolen fabrics, much less 10 Eng
land
3. Because the Farmer, with ample markets
at hand for his products, being led thereby 10
diversity his industry, finding market for
Fruits, Root crops, sc. which are too bulky or
periShable 10 bear transportation 10 distant
market. is naturally attracted to a system Of
cropping which steadily improves his soil and
increases his product, while, with his markets
afar off. he is tempted to grow crop after crop
Of W heat or Corn or Cotton. exhausting his
soil aud diminishing his product. Thus we
see il stated by the Free Traders that the aver
age Weld Of Wheat in Poland, Northern Ger
many and other erain-exporling countries OF
Europe is only six bushels for one sown,
while in England it will average twenty bush
els. With our workshops and our markets
in Europe, we shall steadily exhaust our FER
tile prairies and river bottoms ofthose elements
which are essential 10 the luxuriant growth Of
Wheat and Corn. But chequer our country
with mills, factories, sc. and a different sys
TEN Of rural industry will secure an opposite
tendency. to the enhancement OF fertility and
produc .ion.
A. Because many articles which our farmers
easily produce-Fuel, Timber, &c.-have
usually no market value in the absence Of
Manufactures and a diversified Industry-in
other words of Home Markets.
5. Because a country or extensive region
wholly devoted TO Agriculture is almost palpa
Div behind in Arts, Comforts, Refinement,
and Afiuence. 1t costs half of all the People
produce 10 transport the other half to somebo-
DIV who will buy it. This may make few
rich merchants and shippers, but the mass
viii be poor and dependent, as the past has
Z al. Afarag