The miners' express. (Dubuque, Iowa) 1849-1854, 1850-04-17

identical. Who will protect them The me.
chanics amout to Cos, ,374 and added to the ag-
riculturlsts and navigators, the amount is 4, ,499
~, all OF whom must be taxed and oppressed
ny protective tariff, for no other purpose than
10 enable these few sugar growers, iron mongers
and the manufacturers of cotton & wool to make
greater profits on the money invested and la
oor oo employed. They employ only about one
nlteenth part OF the country and yet they put
forth the humbug cry that to protect them is to
protect American labor. Who believes that
these capitalists are more interested to keep up
the prce OF labor than the laborers themselves?
"hat wonderful philanthropy this! The fact
is, they have an interest in the matter They
are warning against abor-their interest is to nut
an end to free trade-to prohibit the exchange
OF commodities which is now going on between
these Western agricultural states and foreign
natlons; and in the end compel us to sell to them
and purchase of them at their own prices -
The natural result of this system would be,
and their object is, to create a surplus of arri-
cultural produce in this country beyond the ca
faclty OF the people to consume, to SO great an
extent as to glut the market, and thus reduce
the price of all agricultural products. This
would make agriculture less profitable than it
now is, and more than four iifths of all the
labor III the country is employed in agriculture,
the price OF labor in this country must rise or
fall in the same ratio as that branch of industry
is profitable or unprofitabc When agriculture
goes down, the price of labor goes with it, and
Just in the same ratio capitalists go up, for the
plain reason that they pay less for labor and pro-
duce and OF course make more profits. And
just IN the same ratio as the price of labor goes
up, their profits diminish, for they produce moth
ing while labor produces all. Their profits ar
rising as they do from labor and the fruits of la
Dor, high wages and high prices for breadstuffs
and other agricultural products take off their
profits. And as l before said, they are now
complaining that the price of labor in this coun-
try is so low that if they reduce the wages any
more their help will leave them and engage in
the more profitable and Independent, employ
ment OF agriculture. The interest of the capi-
talists is always at war with labor, but there is
such a small proportion of labor engaged in man
ufactures that this branch of industry cannot
control the price of it. All branches of labor
aePend upon the success of agriculture. This
IS the great regulator To break this down the
streams OF commerce must be broken up-free
intercourse with forei gn nations must be stop
ped-the arteries of life to navigation must be
cut ott-the great ships that now bear the sur
plus products ofagriculture across the broad bo-
som OF the great deep, must be tied up to rot in
the docks-the great seas must become a deep
watcry waste, or be whitened only by the can
vass of other nations-the channels of trade and
all the invigorating rlls of thrift to agriculture,
must be dried up,-the products of our fruitful
soil, nurturcd by the sweat and toll of the stur-
dy yeomanry, must be confined within the bor-
ders OF our own country to glut the marts till
our granaries shall overflow and the fruits of
the labor OF the husbandman shall rot in the field
all this and more must be done by the aid of
the strong arm of Government, to convert this
from an agricultural to manufacturing coun-
try, tor no higher or holier purpose than to ap-
pease the unsuitable longing of moneyed aris-
tocracy, which, like the horse leech, ever was
and ever will be crying, give, give.
These capitalists frequently portray lamenta-
bic pictures OF the poor laborers of Great Britain,
and then assert that free trade will bring labor
IN this country down to a level with labor there.
Inns may be so, and may not. If labor here
was employed in the same pursuit as there, then
this reasoning mig ght have some force, to the cx-
tent that the surplus products of labor came in
competition in other markets, and no further
But Great Britain is not an agricultural coun-
try. The great amount of labor there is employ
ed in manufacturing. For this reason, the price
OF labor is subject to, and regulated by, the
utacturlng capitalists; and the Lord knows, they
have done it with vengeance. Those who ask
for protective tariff, propose to regulate the
price of labor here in the same way That is,
they will change this from an agricultural to
manufacturing country for the purpose of ena-
bling them to do So But they promise to pay
better for labor than they do in the old country
| have already shown that they are not inclined
to do so if they could. will now try to show
that they could not, if they would.
In the year l549, there were 2725 ,596 bales
of cotton grown in the United States. OF this,
only 5lS,O39 bales, Qess than one-ffth,) were
used in this countryside balance, (2,2O7, $50
bales,) went abroad, and was sold for the enor-
uous sum Of $66, ,296,967. And yet the amt
| ,o<,, horo
this country. Now, suppose this were convert
ed into manufacturing country, and all this
cotton which went abroad should be manufactu-
red here, could it find market in the States?
Certainly not. 1t would go to Europe, Asia,
! Africa, South America, and the Isles Of the
Ocean; and there must, and would, come in
competition with the same kind of goods manu-
factured by British labor. Now, how could the
American manufactures pay higher for labor
than is paid by the British manufactures, and be
able to sell their articles at the same price they
do? Most certainly they could not. This, then,
would bring American labor in direct competi-
ton with British labor, and it must fall to level
with that. THIS IS WHAT THESE CAPITALIsTs
WISH TO Do. They now say, that by reason of
labor being cheaper in Britain than here, the
English can manufacture cheaper than they can,
and can bring their articles to this country, and
! undersell them here; and therefore they ask for
|
Again, we are told that manufacturing makes
nation independent and especially SO in time
| of war This is not true. Is Great Britain an
independent naton9 In the forcible language
of scripture, tIs not the fool more than raj
ment'" No nation can be Independent unless
it can produce the staff Of life for its own people
Great Britain cannot do this No nation that
employs it's labor in manufacturing. can do it.
Reason, therefore, teaches that the price of Ia
Dor will be higher, and we will be more indepen-
dent to remain an agricultural people. .,.i !
But we have the aattering promise of a "home
market How is this? A tariff will not alter
US as people. If one half of our people should
become manufacturers, there would be no more
mouths to feed, nor backs to clothe, than there
otherwise would be. And now we produce more
breadstuffs, and manufacture more cloth than can
be used in this country. The fact is, there now now
is, and always will be, n surplus in this country,
beyond the capacity Of the people to consume.
This surplus must go abroad in some shape or
other. Iflabor here is left untrammeled, to fol-
low the course which nature has dictated, this
surplus will continue to 90 abroad, as it now
does in brcadstuffs and the raw materials which