Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1848-09-27
FROM THE BALTIMORE AMERICAN.
AGRICULTURE AND THE TARIFF

State Agricultural Society Of New York was d,
livered by Hon. JOHN &. SPENCER, the II
instant. The Address is published in the n.
Tribune of "Wednesday week
MIR. Spencer devotes himself chiefly TO the con
sideration OF the relative importance of the horn
and the foreign markets for our breadstufls and h,
does It In a calm and dspassionate manner III,
represents IL truly as question with which poti
cal party feelings should have nothing to do; il
pertains to the national prosperity, and directly or
indirectly affects the Interests of all sorts of labor
Ii is very certain, however, that party feeIinus
have been connected with this question. and that
| they are more less connected with it now. The
time, nevertheless, is suspicious for the prevalence
| of sound considerae views on this subject: and il
| surely cannot be supposed that, with their own in
teres's clearly set forth and perceived, the grain
growers of the United States will permit any po]i
teal prejudces to stand in the way of iudicious
and permanent policy adapted to promote alike their
own and the national prosperity.
AS between those who contend i'm behalf of de-
pendence on foreign market for the sale of our
surplus breadstufis and those who believe that our
main dependence should be, and in the long run
must be, upon the home consumption, Mr. Spencer
arrays inParIally and clearly the views and rea-
sons OF both sides. We quote him here:
ne reasons assigned why must depend up
on foreign market are chiefly these: That our
Agricultural products already far exceed the con-
sumption of our own country as was shown by the
Europe the last year. That even in our best Gull
uvated counties there are yet large tracts of land
wholly unimproved; that we have immense terri
tories, organized and unorganized and almost bound
less tracts in the new States, of the richest SOIL
which are destined for the plough and that with
the great discoveries and Improvements made in
Agricultural science and practice, il is next TO i'm
possible to measure Agricultural capacities or
TO FIX limit TO our surplus production And the
consequence Is, that these incalcuable products
must seek market abroad, that now existing at
home being inadequate to their consumption
Nov, this view, ii seems to me- assumes the
very point In dispute 1t proceeds upon the suppo-
sltion that our people will almost exclusively devote
themselves to Agriculture that no considerable DOR
ton OF them will or be drawn off TO other bur
sults and that The United States of North America
is TO supply the world with breadstuf1S and proyi.
slons. The very object of those who advocate the
esaoiishment OF manufactures, is TO afford lucrative
employ ment for labor in other than agricultural pro-
ducts, and thus prevent this undue and dispropor-
tomato absorption of labor and capital in any one
enamel. They deprecate as most disastrous the
policy which would hazard the prosperity of the
country uron the cast of single die
They deprecate this very extension of agricul-
tural pursuits as an evil in itself, which can be
checked only by the timely diversion of labor into
other channels. And to accomplish this they would
provide inducements in navigation, in mechanical
employments, but chiefly IN manufactures of every
KIND, to the aborers and capitalists of the country
to seek those occupations They add what no one
VIII deny, that this course of policy would relieve
agriculture from superabundance Of labor and at
Inc same time to great extent absorb the excess of
lis products 10 argue, then, in favor Of a foreign
market. upon the hypothesis, that there will and
can be little or no other employment than agricul-
lure Tor the great masses of people is to assume
without proving it what is most srenuously denied
on the other side 1t is maintained that it only re-
quirts the exhibition of facts and the plain inferen-
rom fhnr, -
men that nothing can be more injurious to them
than the dsproportoned concentration of labor and
capital upon any one interest, that il must necessa
rlly and inevitably be overdone and proftless and
that diversity of labor and variety of employment
mutually stimulate and sustain each other, and in
sure improvement and perfection in each. Well
informed agrlcultnrlss lament the improvidence OF
those who seek in new lands for that fertility Of
sou which they can command without removing
from their own homesteads, by proper 'illage and
by the application Of -.~nuItS within their roach
AHA winch they suffer TO 90 to waste. or hv dra;"
n9 ana clearing the rich bottoms in their innediar,
vicinity. They lament The ,i;Hi,, :".l and
unproductIye cultivation, which is the consequence
oil such appropriateness. And it is for these reasons
TO check the tendency TO excessive Agriculture,
and TO improve and perfect that which is safely car
lie on, that the value of home market is SO
strongly pressed. To them ii is not sufficient TO
ASSET that excessive and reckless Agriculture ,ciH
continue and tciH augment with embarrassing pop-
fherS ore we must look to foreign rather than home
market. The answer is, that this is the very rea
son why we should foster our home markets, and
discourage the injurious and allacious expectation
of extensive foreign consumption"
The idea that foreign nations will enlarge their
demands for our grain and provisions in proportion
as our crops increased, and in proportion as we
bec'me dependent on them for manufactured arti-
ceS, is falIacy so palpable that no one, it would
seem, could be deuded by it. Yet this assump
ton is gravely put forth, and is made the basis of
whole theory. Mr.. Spencer shows from statistics
how small are our actual exports OF breadsufTs and
provisions for period extending from 1921 to 1916
They amounted to once eighth only of our exports
OF domestic produce In lS45 out OF an acprerate
export OF domestic produce, amounting in value TO
about one hundred millions of dollars the exports
OF breadstus and provisions reached in amount To
fifteen millions This includes our exports to the
whole world. Not more than some three millions
OF the aggregate went TO European markets And
1t is upon European markets that the greatest stress
is laid when the advocates of free iInporatons con-
tend for foreign markets
Inc views OF our Southern planters the produ,
GERS of cotton, rice and tobacco. are diverse from,
those which the grain growers interests suopest ON
THIS subject. The former export largely to FOREIGN
countries, and they prefer TO obtain their suppIie or
manufactured articles from those foreign countries
IN the belief that they will thus secure a greater
11n'non. and Iar0er sales for their own nrodncts -
upon thelr theUry the price they pay for imported
manufactures is OF little consequence in the long
run because they suppose it is returned TO them by
the increased ability TO purchase and correspond
ing advance IN the prices of their own s;apes
lhls reasoning, If sound, might apply as well to
the home as to the foreign market and until il ia
shown that one market is better than two and thar
the increase of the home demand for Southern STA
pies Is an injury to the planter the opposition of the
cotton grower TO the progress of American manuEac
of he fcIc &