New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-11-30
Industry at the South.

gndust1, at the somih.
We watch with much interest the at
tempts now making at the South to estab-
lish various branches of mechanical and
manufacturing industry. We trust that
these efforts may be perfectly successful,
and shall hail their triumph as another
of the good fruits produced by sectional
agitation. Our doctrine is that every
community ought to produce all the arti-
cles necessary for its use except such as
nature forbids to its soil and climate. It's
a great loss of time aud labor for the popu-
lation of Carolina to go to Lynn to buy
their shoes. to Connecticut for their car
riages, to Sheffield for their knives and
forks, or to Manchester or Fall River for
their caIicoes. 1t would be much better
for all those articles to be made at home,
and paid for in the produce of the soil to
be consumed in the immediate region where
it is raised and so returned to the land
again, thereby preventing It's exhaustion.
The greater the amount of the home trade
that is to say, Of the exchanges performed
within each community, compared with
chat Of the foreign trade or of exchanges
with distant regions, the better for the
community itself and for the country Of
which it forms a part. And this principle
is as true with reference to Ohio or Louis
lana or any county or town within them,
as it is with reference to the nation as
whole.
There, is then, no cause for alarm, but
the contrary, when any state or district
which has hitherto gone great distance to
supply itself with articles of necessity or
luxury makes an effort to produce them at
home. We rejoice then rather than trem-
bic at the introduction of manufactures and
the finer branches of mechanic art south of
Mason and Dixon's line; or if we tremble
at all, it is with fear lest the attempt prove
futile. For it is we'll known that the more
advanced sorts of industry do not easily
take root and thrive in soil which is pol
lutcd by the faint of Slavery. That insti-
tuition begets shiftless habits and tends to
general languor of all public interests. The
energy and shrewdness which are requisite
to the success of industrial enterprises are
not favored by the atmosphere Of Bond
age. Thus there is great danger that the
attempt now making at the South, after
living through forced and Fictitious exis-
tence, will gradually come to a feeble and
melancholy erd.
This is our fear, but we sincerely hope
to be disappointed. And we venture to
say that the mass of Northern laborerS
agree with US, They would welcome any
such evidence of prosperity at the South
as q good omen for the whole country
Moreover, they have no fear of starving
because the shoes of Lynn or the cottons
Of Lowell are no longer demanded in
Southern markets, as we are threatened
shall be the case. The change cannot be
accomplished in twinkling, but must be
brought about by degrees; and being fore
warned they can easily prepare themselves
for it. Besides, Yankee workmen do not
perish because their trade becomes slack,
but have spirit and versatility enough to
turn their hand to something else. And at
any rate, the attempt to scare them out of
their principles by the threat of diminish
ing their work, will prove failure There
are men and classes who carry their con-
Yietions in their pockets, but the free la
borers of the North and West are not
among them They cannot be made to
believe that Slavery is good by mena-
cling them with loss of employment. Nor
will they cease thinking and speaking
about the Fugitive Slave Law because
Southern competition is going to take away
some Of their customers. As body they
have intelligence enough to be influenced
by reason more than intimidation. and
eanesness of conviction enough to regard
a moral principle as superior il its nature
to days wages.