Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1851-05-16

village on the banks of a respectable 6rool'
? (whose limited, though employed, power ha ,
made some pleasant Valley smile with pro-
: perity and comfort.) for even the mop hdndt-
that we use We ought to be ashamed of out
seves-and that is exactly what we ought t.
be We might be EXPORTERS, to the figure oi
hundreds Of thousands Of dollars, annually
and we are IMPORTERS, paying tribute wherc
we ought to exact it, and, in many instance
sending our natural productions abroad an
paying more enterprsing but less farOred con
munities for making them up for US. We az
buyers and sellers, instead of makers and Sc
ers as kind Providence designed us to b.,
and so long as we stupdy remain so on,
growth will be slow and our increasing pro-
perity slower. If one half of our active Me-
chants were active Manufacturers, our town
would feel the inspiring influence as a hors
feels the spur of his rider! We should "g,
ahead" The noble Winooski, rich in creatiy,
power, and running to be useful, would not
then,reproach us with its magnificent Falls, and
send its profitless waters mournfully into the
bosom Of our Lake.
We very cordially give place to the commu,
nication of r., S. T. elcited.it will be noticed,
by that of 80. P. Q."-U. V. w. on the same
subject will be equally welcome.
dor the Free Press3
Rall Road, ,-i3ridsing the Lake, &C.,
GEN. CLARKe:-The communication of 0. P O.
in your paper OF the 7th inst. have read with in
tcrcst. 1t calls the attention OF our citizens to mat
ters OF vital importance to Burlington The growti
and past prosperity OF town are the results of ou
tdrora5le postion rather than of the combined effort,
o our citizens to so invest capital as to give employ
ment to tn" mnny who, literally "earn their bread by
the sweat of their face 1t has ever been place de
voted to getting gain, by buying and selling rather
than by manufacturing. But very few OF the manu-
hctured articles sold in Burlington are made here
We are indebted to other paces for even our mn
HANDLES, most of our Joots and shoes, as well as a
host of other rscessaries saying nothing of the lux-
uries OF life Why is it 50 ? Our favorable Location
as business place, has been relied upon to build ~
the town, and the necessity that has compelled th,
inhabitants Of less favored places to resort to manu-.
featuring, has no. operated here. Has not the time
arrived when course should be changed, that the
past This is a question that our leading business
men and men Of capital should consider well. Had
the goods and wares, manufactured in other States
that have been sold here during the last ten years,
been manufacturing here, also, our town would prob
! ably now contain population of seventeen thou
sand, instead of thousand five hundred persons
! If cur capitalists, who, by buying and selling have
accumulated wealth. would, instead Of investing in
in foreign stocks, which sure to pay some seven
or eight per cent. interest, establish manufactures
and give employment 20 the needy ,aborer, they
would do more to build up the town and furnish food
for the needy, than ever has been done in Burinr-
! ton. "The poor ye have always with YOU" Isl
sound policy to maintain them in idIeness No.
Give them employment. Pay them TOR their labor,
and that you may have work for them TO do, inyes,
your capital in establishments that viii require their
labor Such course would BE- efcctire protection in
more ways than l. will protect us from the dep
relations OF the idle and the vicious for vice is sure
to follow in the footsteps OF ideness. It will protect
us from Poortarcs; and our town from retrogradng
1t may be said that the investment at Winooski,
in the Wooen Factory, has been disastrous, and thai
capitalists here have suffered enough already in en-
deavoring to promote manufactures. The failure
that establishment does not disproye my conclusions
any more than the failure of one merchant proves
that there should be no more merchants. have no
doubt that the business OF the Burlington Mill Com.
pany, had it been wholly managed by any one Of
some halt dozen gentlemen who were interested in
it, instead othayug been under the direction of sew
eral OF them, would have been profitable. 1t an
Old and true saying that TOO many Cooks spoil the
BROTH" and so it has been with the affairs of that
Company. Had there been one Cook only, land that
Cook had been JAMES Cook to direct its affairs the
result would have been quite different, in my opinion
i May :. Yours, RS.T.