The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-07-17

to-day.
The House Of Representatives were occupied
in the consideration of the report of the Com
mittee of Elections adverse to the admission of
HUGH n. SMITH, esq, as delegate from New
Mexico.
GA correspondent of the London Morning Post
makes the announcement, that 'the American
cotton growers about to establish factories in
the west of Ireland He says:
"'The American manufacturers have long felt,
that whilst wages were 30 high in America, they
struggled in vain against British manufacturers;
labor of all sorts being fully fifty per cent higher in
America than in England. The Southern slave
owners, exerting themselves in Congress in favor
Of their British allies, have prevented that protec
tive duty being laid which would make up for
this heavy item of expense in manufacture, and
place them on equality with foreigners Hence,
the manufacturers anguish exist only successful
ly where slave-labor is applied. They perceive that
it will be in future cheap TO transport cotton to
Galway, Limerick, or Sligo, as to carry it to New
York, Boston, or Philadelphia; whilst the labor
required to manufacture it in the west of Ireland
will be nearly forty per cent less than at Man
chester, and the vast water power existing every
where will enable them to dispense with the costly
steam power British manufacture depends upon.
The amount of water-power in the west of Ireland
Is prodigious. Alexander Nimmo, eminent
Scotch engineer, calculated that the water power
which flowed idly to the sea at Galway would suf-
flee to turn all the machinery of Glasgow; and
there is little doubt that the Corrib and its tribu-
taries possess power, now useless equal to all the
steam power of Lancashire. Influenced by these
considerations, the American manufacturers have
determined 10 contend on Irish soil with Manches-
ter for the possession of the British markets all
the globe and with their intelligence, enter
prise, and capital, and with the free action the
present British tariff and navigation laws afford
them, there is little doubt, in favorable local
ty.as the west of Ireland, they will do with emf
nent success"
We know of nothing to corroborate the above
extraordinary statement, and are not TO be taken
as indicating any confidence in its correctness
by making the comments which it invites
Whether American cotton manufacturers-not
cotton growers, as by aslip of the pen the Posts
correspondent is made to say-are OF are not
about to establish factories in Ireland, it is GER
tain that such state Of things as could give
sufficient color Of probability TO the statement
as to secure its insertion in respectable paper,
is worthy of some thought.
How comes it that, when labor is 50 cheap in
lreland!the immense water power of which the
writer speaks has been suffered to run to waste.
and that the natives of Ireland have to wait for
foreign capitalists to turn both to account
Ireland has been blessed for generations
with the privilege Of tilling the earth, and
with free admission into England for its
products. She has enjoyed in its perfection
all the advantages to be derived from raising
wheat upon her fertile soil, and with cheap
labor, to be consumed in the sister isle, sustain
ing the smallest cost Of transportation. and Of
being repaid in manufactured products at the
cheapest rate that English skill and capital can
furnish them, without the cost being enhanced
by import duties. The production Of food is al
most the sole occupation Of the Irish people,
and yet nearly one-third gifts soil is untitled
labor is so cheap that vast numbers of its popu-
lation, after they have contrived, by Transporting
themselves across the channel, TO save a little
something out Of the superior agricultural wages
Of England in harvest time, devote it forthwith
to paying for passage across the ocean, and
emancipating themselves forever from such
blessedness as the free-trade system gives
them.
1t is but few days since that we quoted
from the London EcoRo,nist-the highest free
trade authority in Europe-its admission that
the protective duty laid upon cotton goods docs
not make up the heavy item Of expense in the
increased cost Of American labor. by increasing
the cost OF the product, as the Posts CORE
spondent imagines. The Economist frankly
comedies that, as to large class Of fabrics this
is not so, as is shown by the fact that the man
ufactures of the United States undersel those
Of England in China and Brazil.
The northern manufacturers had been able
by various economies, among others by supe-
Nor machinery, to counterbalance the superior
cheapness Of British labor. The southern
manufacturers, by their proximity to the raw
material, and the consequent saving Of trans
portstion, and by the use Of that improved ma
chinery, had acquired the ability to compete
with both. But what will the latter do. il to
that acquired skill and improved machinery by
which the northern manufacturers had put
themselves upon terms Of equal competition
with those Of Manchester, notwithstanding the |
labor employed costs so much more. they should |
add the advantage Of cheaper labor2 Will it not
soon be seen that protection for cotton goods is |
not matter 10 which the South can be indif |
ferent; that in order not to meet these new |
rivals in the distant markets Of the world. but |
to avoid being crushed by them at home, pro
lection will be as necessary as it was in 1924, |
to those who started the experiment Of spinning
and WEAVING cnfion In New Ennlanhl