The southern press., 1850-10-29


cialy, belong rather to the South than the North,
and their connection with the Eastern States
would not be very strong. Events may easily be
imagined which would separate a Northern Con-
federacy into two parts, the one leaning towards
the South, and the other relying on a Canadian
connection and, in estimating the relative capac
ty Of such a confederacy for war, we must remen-
ber that the States which would compose II, now
owe one hundred and ten millions Of dollars, while
the Southern Stntes owe only sixty millions.
When we consider all these facts, can we doubt
that the free States will acknowledge the equality
of the South, rather than return TO their natural
poverty and weakness by dissolving the Unioni--
that Union to which we Of the South are so de-
votedly attached, and 90 whose preservation we
are willing to sacrifice every thing but our honor.
We have seen that the North possesses none OF
the material elements OF greatness, in which the
South abounds, whether we regard tile produc-
tons of the SOIL the to the markets of the
world, or the capacity of military defence. While
the slave States produce nearly every thing within
themselves, the free States will soon depend on
them even for food they now do for rice, sugar,
tobacco, and cotton--the employment or their
ships in Southern commerce, the employment OF
their labor in the manutactureof Southern cotton,
and oil that they can purchase OF other countries
with the fabrics Of that great Southern staple.
We have shown that the price OF that staple must
be permanently raised; how would the manufac.
turing industry of the free States stand this rise, II
tnelr taAeS were TdiSeu Dy uiSSoiutioH VI shS
Union, and how would their laborers subsist un-
der this new burden, if they at once lost the em-
ployment afforded by the free use of one hundred
and forty millions Of Southern capital, and the
disbursement of twenty millions OF Southern
taxes? The answer to this question will bring us
to the last view we shall present Of our subject
and will show that the Union has, in truth, inesti-
mable worth for the North. 1t defes all the
powers Of figures to calculate the value to the free
States of the conservative influence of the South
upon their social organization. .
/ The great sore of modern society is the war be-
tween capital and labor The fruits of any enter
prise of industry have TO repay all the wages OF
the labor emp Dyed in it, and the remainder Is the
profit of capital. Every man knows that the
profit he can make on any undertaking depends
upon the expenses, and that the chief part OF
these is the hire Of the necessary labor. The
cheaper he can get that the more clear gain is left
him. It is obvious, upon this statement, that the
lower the wages, the higher are the profits, and 1t
is the interest OF capital to reduce them to the
lowest point, it is of labor to reduce the profits.
Free competition is continually bringing down the
prices Of the productions Of industry, and the
capitalist has to meet this effect by lessening the
cost of production, and to lower the wages is one
of the readiest ways to accomplish this end. II Is
true, that laws Of nature, If left uninterrupted,
will adjust the shares of wages and profits in GER
tain ratio to each other, and in young and -four
ishing country, where every addition to the stock
VI anu iduoI euiPoycu 10 uttcHuCu oy u
proportional or greater increase of the gross re-
turns, these shares will continue the same, or even
increase.
In such q case, the natural opposition Of inter-
est between the laborer and capitalist is not felt
but the moment any cause interrupts the operation
of these natural Jaws, or diminshes the produc-
tiveness Of the new labor annually brought into
action, one or both must diminish, for the whole
returns to be divided less in proportion TO the
number Of those who are TO receive. Each will
try to get the most he can, and throw the whole
loss upon the other; and in this strfe capital has
an immense advantage. 1t Gun easily be trans.
ferred from less to more profitable employments,
and from countries where its rewards are low to
those where they are high.
We have seen an example Of this operation in
the steady flow Of capital from Europe to this
country. Labor has no such facility no freight
is so costly that of man. Poverty and ignorance
combine With local affections and habits to tie the
aborer to his native district, and even to the en-
ployment, to which he has been trained Emigra-
ton is the exception, not the rule it is only for
the comparatively well off-those who have some
thing-not for the countless crowd of poor, who
live by tfsr daily toll. Hence the supply Of labor
remains slaady, while the demand-that is, the
supply of capital-is readily reduced, and profits
are easily increased at the expense of wages. The
same result is produced by other, yet more inevi.
table causes the very dimuntion of the returns
0f industry reards the rate at which capital can
accumulate heantlniey pOpuidIon CoHtiHueS W
increase at its former rate, and with 1t the supply
of labor, for the fall in wages, which must follow,
cannot check the increase Of population, except
by pinching them with the want Of subsistence /;
but it is slow and uncertain check, even IN that
way. 1t will have no such effect where the po-
food-upon potatoes instead Of corn, as has been
the case in Ireland, and even in the Eastern free
States. No people breed faster than these potatoe
eaters. The necessary fall in wages then goes on
with accelerated velocity, as population outruns
capital in its increase, and begins TO press upon
| in the starving aborers Of Europe, where the
wages Of a weeks labor, for IA hours day, are
often only 36 cents week! In l842, in Manches-
ter, 1900 families, 1856 persons, were reduced to
this standard of subsistence; and in other years
their condition has been still worse! We have
before alluded to the signs, that the North is very
far distant from this pressure of population upon
the means Of living, which she is obliged ultimate
ly to reach. Statistics show gradual, but GER
tain decline in the wages Of labor in the older
parts Of the free States. The desttution of the
poor in the Northern cities is annually increasing,
and there has been frightful growth of pauper-
ism. Mr.. Fisher says that in Massachusetts,
the model State lit reaches in 90. In Eng
land it is but double, in 10. Meat is no longer
the daily food Of the eastern laborer and one of
tie answers from Maine to the Treasury circular
in lS45, says that an able bodied man cannot
possibly support nlmSell anu NlS WlIe Dy aSTlcut-
tural labor! We have seen that the supply Of
food was already deficient in the Eastern States,
and that in Ohio it had reached its maximum
point in other words that every future increase
would be attended with more than proportional
increase of cost. Add to this the growing dispo-
stion of Northern population to desert agricu-
tural employments, which must be partly due to
their diminished returns, its tendency to concen-
trate in towns and factories, its rapid rate Of
natural increase, and it's still greater increase by
emigration from abroad, and we can have no
doubt that Northern aborers are increasing faster
than Northern capital. Hence a pressure upon
the means of subsistence, and a still greater fall
in wages cannot be far off II would be heavy
and instantaneous where the Union dissolved for
that event would, as We have shown, not only
throw 30 millions Of dollars of new taxes upon
the North but would withdraw 140 millions of
capital, which employs her labor. This loss
would fall chiefly, ifnot entirely, upon wages. The
Northern capitalist would not submit to decrease
Of profit, but would send part of his capital to
the South, where profits were higher, until he
had reduced wages at home to point which
would leave him nearly as much clear gain, on his
industry before. He would in this way escape
- a. .~c A. :.