The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1850-07-27

! GTVoln'y B. Palmer Esq, Newspa-
per asen. offered Silver cup, as . prize
for the beat essay on advertising 1t WAS
awarded by the Committee to Horace
Greeley Esq, for the following admira.
Bile paper.
The Philosophy Of Advertising.
Man, they say is trading animal
the only one. The wants ofeach indi.
v1ual are more numerous and varied
tim his faculties and capacitis. devoted
10 supplying them. Each producer Of
necessaries or comforts naturally produces
a superabundance OF whatever he grove
or fabrlcat-s, and exchanges 1t for com
petenc. OF other wares or staples adapted
10 his wants. The grain-grower has
large surplus OF grain, but requires nearly
everything else; the pin-maksr consumes,
perhaps, a dollars worth per year OF his
own products, and four hundred and
ninety nine dollars worth Of other peo-
ple's obtained by the sale of his own.
And as man rises in the scale OF civilza-
tim, his wants are increased and DIVERSE
fled. He lahore more, produces more;
exchanges far more. The lowest savage
may produce or gather hundred dollars
worth per annuw, and exchange ten dol
lars worth oft for other necessaries or
comforts; while the population OF the
United States or Great Britain produced
at least FIVE hundred dollars worth 70
each able bodied man, whereof two-thrds
at least is exchanged by the producers
with each other, and with the producers
of foreign lands. And, as man shall con-
tinuc to rise in the scale of intelligence.
Industry, and efficiency and comfort, not
merely the amount but the proportion OF
each mans products exchanged for those
of others must continue to increase. The
aggregate Of exchanges of property is
probably now expanding throughout the
world at the rate Of ten per cant per an
UNI, though the annual increase Of popu-
Iation is less than three per cent.
But while the aggregate Of exchanges
Is rapidly increasing, the profits OF the
exchangers tend steadily to diminish.
1t Is the interest of the producers Of all
classes and chimes to effect their exchan-
ges with each other as directly and sim
Ply-at all events, as cheaply-as posi-
Bile. 1t matters little to the producer as
whole whether prices b. low or high,
if they be Justly proportioned. II A, be-
ing farmer in 1915. received dollar
per bushel Tor his corn, and bought tine
broadcloth for his coat at IS per yard
and now can get just such broadcioth tor
two doIlars and half, while his corn
will bring but fifty cents per bu.hel, he
is neither better nor worse for he change,
all other things being equal. But If IN
1915 he paid five bushels of tom for a
yard OF broadcloth, while the maker OF
the cloth received but four bushels, and
now he gives tho like FIVE bushels per
yard, but tho maker receives four bushels
and three pecks Of corn, or their full
equivalent, for every yard Of cloth he
turns off, then there has been real i'm
prov-n,-nt in the condition of the produ-
GERS OF cloth, il not OF corn also And,
as intelligence is difliused and knowledge
Is brough, TO bear upon the mosl intimate
and homely relations OF life, the cost Of
making exchanges I'm other words, the
charges and profits OF non producing
tradsrs-must and do decrease continL-
ally
But this BY no means proves that trade
is power or that traders, as class, do
worse than formerly, 1t only proves that
the number OF traders cannot and does
not Increase in proportion with the in
crease of trade, without subecting them
TO the necessity Of taking smaller and
smaller profits. Every year the num-
Der of producers and OF consumers OF
others products increases, as also the ag.
grega'e of products exchanged. Every
year the construction of canals, railroads,
harbors, steamships, and other facilities
tor transportation and traffic, lmpels great
-r and still greater production, with a
still larger extension OF commercial ~
changes. The neighborhood in the Ohio
valley which was clad in homespun, and
did not pay ten dollars to each person for
all ITS purchases from others half cen
fury since. now w,als the fabrics Of Old
and New England, and isa liberal patron
ofthe splce-growers Of the Indies, the
tea Of China, the coffee OF Brazil, aud
the fish Of Newtoundland-probably pay
ing thirty dollars per head for the pro-
ducts Of other industry than its own, al
though tho average range Of prices Is
about half what it was in 1900 Trade
has greatly increased, IS increa,,ng, and
is bound TO increase even more rapidly
than it has ever yet done.
1t is idle, therefore, to say that COM
nerce is ruined, PROSTATE, because over
dsns. 1t 10 only the possibility of ma
king fortunss by trade with no decided
capacity for the vocation that is vanish