New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-11-19

on the wild lands of Illinois before they will
sell for forty-fve dollars, " which," as the
pamphlet Informs us, is less than half the
price of many of the farms of the Atlantic
States"
The writer expatiates freely upon the
vast increase in the market for the produce
of these lands, but he does not mention the
fact that our total export of food of all kinds
for l649-'5O did not exceed the amount
exported in 1856, and but little exceeded
the average of the three years commencing
1894 and ending with that year, while
the prospect at present is that there will
exist 10 European demand whatever for
wheat and -four, except at prices so low as
to be ruinous to the producer and, if such
be the ease, what will then be the value of
the lands Much, however, is said about
the growth of the internal demand, but no.
thing is said of the very important fact that
there is a steady diminutien in the produc.
ton of articles to be given in exchange for
food, and thus to make market for the pro-
duce of the land We manufacture less
iron now than we did four years since by
four hundred thousand tuns, and in this alone
we find a diminution of domestic demand
for the fruits of the earth to the extent of at
least twenty millions of dollars. We con-
vert into cloth hundred and sixty thousand
bales of cotton less than we did three years
since and if we estimate the additional
value given to it by the process of manu-
facture at only fifty dollars bale, we have
here diminution Of market amounting to
eight millions of dollars. We manufacture
far less wool than we did, and we might in
the same manner proceed through variety
of employments, showing that the domests
market for the produce of these lands is de-
creasiBg, while the foreign market does not
increase, and that to this fact it is due that
wheat now sells in the West at from forty
to fifty cents bushel.
With view to exhibit "the increase Of
American wealth and commerce." and par.
ticularly under the system of 1916, which
has destroyed the value Of so many of our
mineral lands, and threatens to destroy the
value of farming lands, Mr.. Walker fur
nishes a table in which 1916 and 1851 are
compared, by which it is shown that in the
fermer there were in operation only 1862
miles of railway, whereas in the present
year there are lO,297; and the assertion
is repeated in the text of his letter fellow
ing the table, thus precluding the idea
that the error was, as it might have
been, one of the printers. Now, we
have before us an extract from Doggett's
Railroad Gnde for September. IS47.
showing that there were at that moment
completed and opened for use, no less than
five thousand seven hundred and forty miles
of railroad, making no account whatever of
the work then done upon roads not yet
opened, of which the extent must have
been very great, as the expenditure is sta
ted to be at the rate of not less than fifteen
millions of dollars year, while the whole
cost of the portions opened in 1916 and
ls47, is put down at only sll, 100000
What could be the object Of so gross
MISREPRESENTATION as this we do not pretend
to guess, but We must say that it forcibly
reminds US of statement recently made in
The Republic, Washington to the eff
feet that the official weight Of Cotton ex-
ported in the first two years of Mr.. Walk
er's administration of the TreaSury-those
wears in which he was pressing for modl-
Gcation of the tarif-had been so greatly
understated that in converting it into bales
of 400 pounds each, ,666,722 bales known
to have been exported, shrank, into 1885,
$50 while the contrary effect was to so
great an extent produced in the following
year-the tariff Of 1916 having then been
enacted-that $50, 26l (the quantity known
to have been shipped) expanded into
2,356, $50; the loss on one side being al
most three hundred thousand, and the gain
on the other almost half million of bales
| The statements IN regard 10 the construc-
ton of railroads are of precisely the same
character, as we here see;
Mr. walkers pamphlet Fact.
lsi6-----.------------ 10. o'9Sy'
To ls5l...-.--.-.........-- ofxo t,ISt
Total. ..l0,2e7 lo,2o'
In regard to large portion of the state
ments contained in this pamphlet, we have
no means of testing their accuracy, but if
they do not come nearer the truth than those
to which we have referred, they are not
worth much, and we are but little surprised
that with all the vast advantages offAed-