The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent., 1848-12-01
(NUMBER TWo.


(NUMBER TWo.)
The truth is, that the great cities anc
towns Of the world are built up out Of tn,
spoIls Of the farmer and planter. Looking
around here in New York, or in Philadel
phia, or Boston, 1t is not possible to avoid
being struck with the number of persons
who live by merely exchanging-passina
| from the producer to the consumer-pro.
ducing nothing themselves. Wagons and
wagoners, carts and cartmen, boats and
boatmen, ships and sailors, are every where
carrying about cotton, and wool, and corn.
Eand wheat, and flour, as if for the pleasure
Of doing it. The man from Tennessee
! sends his cotton to Manchester to be twis-
ted. His corn goes along with it, to feed
the man that twists it. 1t leaves him worth
twenty cents. By the time it is consumed
i by the Manchester spinner, it is worth, per
Ehaps, q dollar. The laborer buys it at
THAT price. The manufacturer gives him
adollar to pay for it, and he charges it to the
,loth at 81 10. The corn and cotton be-
come cloth, and the Tennessee man buys it
bck, paying-as we see by the New Or
leans paper-fre bales for one! He can
sometimes send his corn, but he can never
send his potatoes, and the reason why he
cannot is, that they are of a class Of commo-
diy Of which the earth yields so largely,
that they will not pay freight. The only
things be can raise for market are those
Of which the earth yields little, and that
will therefore pay freight. He raises
three hundred pounds Of cotton, all of which
goes to market, bringing him back but six
ty fashioned in cloth; returning nothing to
land Of what it drew out of the land, where
as, if he had consumers near him, he
would raise almost as many bushels of po-
tatoes, the manure for which would go upon
the land to enrich it, and make himself rich.
He could then afford TO clear, to ditch,
and drain, and cultivate the richest land,
now covered with timber or with water.
Why does he not do these things? Why
does he not bring the consumer to his side?
Why does he continue, year after year, to
send his grain or cotton to the distant mill,
instead Of bringing, once and forever, the
mill to him? The reason may be found in
the newspapers every day. Last year cot
ton manufacturers. wool manufacturers,
and iron manufacturers were prosperous.
Now they are stopping their work. Ma
ny are already ruined, and many more are
likely so to be. Why is this! Does it a.
rise out Of any change in our affairs? Il
does not. It arises out out ofthe changes a.
broad. Last year England made railroads,
and consumption then was large. This
was small. Last year we
built factories and furnaces. This year
and furnace builders are
ruined. All OF them would be ruined, had
they not a tariff of protection, inadequate
as is that of 1916; to give them that pro-
lection that is needed to secure them a.
gainst such changes. Prosperous they
would now be had they the tariff Of 1912,
to give them the protection needed to Sc
cure them against such changes. Pros
porous they would now be had the tariff ol
1912 remained unaltered; and the thou
sands employed in them would have re-
mained profitable consumers for the farm
ers, instead of being driven over the eoun-
try to become the rivals of the farmer, in
the quantity Of provisions, of
which there is already redundance.
We may see why the planter offs. Car
olina, and Georgia and Tennessee, has not
the consumer near him: why he continues,
year after year, wasting his cotton and his
corn on the road going to mill, instead Of
bringing the mill to him. The whole sys-
TEN oftrade, BY which the cotton and the
food are thus forced to 60 to the mill in
stead ofthe mill coming to them, is unsound
and unnatural and ruinous. Reyulsions
are.and must be perpetual occurrences; and
none can risk their means in factories or
furnaces bnt men who can afford to incur
great risks for the sake of exorbitant pro-
fits. The whole system is one Of mere
gambling, and so it will continue to be
while the trade Of the country remains thus
liable to be deranged BY changes in the ac-
tion Of foreign nations, over which we have
no control; and so long will the planter con-
tinue to give five bales of cotton for one Of
cloth. Whenever he shall endeavor to
take for himself the protection necessary to
enable hin to fring the spinner and weaver
to his side, there to eat the corn, while con-
verting the cotton into cloth, he will save
all the vast expence of transportation to
which he is now subject; he will increase
the market for his cotton at home, and he
will obtain better prices for the cotton and
corn that he sends into the general market
Of the world. All this he will do when he
shall arrive at the conclusion that the ques-
ton Of protection is in fact and in truth,
one Of protection to The farmer and planter,
and not Of protection to the manufacturer.
The latter with his machinery can go
where hewil. The planters land cannot
change its place. The former will come
to him, as the grist-miller does, all over the
country, if he can be assured of adequate
and uniform remuneration, and the freight
and commissions viii then be saved. If
the manufacturer cannot safely do this-if
he continue to be, as in past times he has
been, forbidden by the fear Of changes in
parties and party policy, he viii continue
to compel the planters produce to come to
him and commission and freights will con-
tinue expensive and wasteful as they now
are.
Let the planter examine carefully the
changes that have occurred in the prices
z r. ~ 1-.t t~4.o,,t-- -vo~,sE and