The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-03-03

linue to be while England shall be permitted to
compel the great mass of the farmers and plant
ers of the world to seek all their exchanges in
her dlmlnutlve and diminishing market. Her
prosperity results invariably from the ruin of
those with whom she trades. When cotton is
high and planters prosper, then England suffers,
and so 1t is when the producers of wheat, rice,
tobacco, or sugar, prosper. Prosperous times for
her are those in which the mass of commodities
thrown upon her market is large, and when she
can obtain much cotton and sugar in return for
little labor, or It's products, given to their pro-
ducers. Hard times for her are those in which
competition among the agricultursts of the world
dimihishes; and when, consequently. there is 4
diminished quantity Of their products to pass
through English mills and English stomachs
Tor then 1t is that she gives much labor for lit
tie sugar, tobacco, and cotton. The object of
| the tariff Of 1912 was to diminish the compe
litlon among the agricutursts of the world for
place IN the markets of England, and its ten
dency was towards daily increase IN the com
petition for The purchase ofthe products ofag-
rtcuhtTe, as is seen in the fact that our CON
sumption OF cotton and sleeps wool doubled
| in five years, and our manufacture of iron ire
bled; thus building up great domestic market
TO compete with that of England for the pur-
chase OF the products Of the farm aud the plan
latlon. The object of the tariff Of 1916 is that
OF increasing competition for the sale of all
those products, and diminishing competition for
Inc purchase OF them; and thus laying the
farmers and planters of the country PROSTATE
at the feet of the miNiOnaires of London and
Manchester; and this object is to be accom-
plished in the name of Democracy and free
trade!
The idea that British prosperity is to arise out
OF the present depression Of produce is repeated
In the various Commercial circulars republished
IN the Economist, of which the following is
specimen:
1.-The decline in the prices of cotton and produce
OF different kinds has varied from twenty. five to
| thirty -hve per cent on the highest value of the
| year, and the sum which such fall represents on
the years imports and the stock on hand cannot
DE less than Six to eight millions of pounds sterling
The loss on cotton alone being estimated at from
two TO three millions. Notwithsta nding the cnor-
NOUS losses which this decrease in value must have
occasioned' mis country ras nsrer before in
more prosperous state, trade generally more
healthy"
why Is IL now so "prosperous?" Because
the decline In our consumption of cotton has
forced upon the British market 50 large guam
tity that the price here has fallen to little more
than thirty dollars bale, and because we are
|
now driving into agriculture the whole growth
OF our population, in order that their labors
may aid In swelling the mass of agricultural
products of all descriptions that must pass to
the world through the market of Britain, ena
bling the people of that country from year to
year to obtain more and more, and to give less
and less in exchange for it,
Enormous losses" as we are here told
have been sustained; but upon whom have they
fallen? To trivial extent upon early ENGLISH
purchasers OF the last crop, but to a vast extent
upon the American planters and merchants who
supplied the English market, without reflect
ing that the diminished domestic CONSUMPTION
must force upon the British market as many
bales out of small crop as four years since we
sent TO IT from large one; and the loss is now
falling still more heavily upon the planters
who have TO supply it at little more than thirty
dollars a bale, when they might be receiving
nifty, had they sent to that market last wear a
million and a half of bales instead of the one
million nine hundred thousand that they did
send. If England now prospors because of a
reduction In the price Of cotton that inflicts
upon the planters Of this country loss of fifty
millions Of dollars, that prosperity is due to the
tariff of lS1G, which first arrested the growth
Of mills and furnaces, and then closed those
which had been called into existence by
the tariff Of 1912. But for the disastrous
change in the policy Of the country. inflicted
upon II by Messrs. Polk and WALKER. we
should now be everyw here building mills and
furnaces and opening mines, with a daily in
creaslng tendency towards the location of spin
ming machinery in the cotton fields of the South
whereas we have at this moment the announce
ment from Mobile that, of the two large mills
there recently built, one is carried on al a loss
while the other is already closed At each
such announcement Manchester rejoices, as
VIZ" '"S" 'he quantity Ol cOltOn that must 90 10
England in the name Of free trade. tends TO in,
crease, and its price tends to fall. The highest
prosperity that England has yet seen will be
when the tariff of 1916 shall have closed the
remaining mills and furnaces of the Union. and
reduced the planters to single market in
which to sell their cotton and buy their cloth
and that is the object sought to be attained by
what in Great Britain is humorously styled
free trade"
The editor Of the Economist informs his
readers that ''the depression Of prices and the
depression Of merchants, as well as the depres-
soh Of farmers and landhoIdcrs, has occurred
IN conjunction with unexampled consumption.
Some persons, then, must have benefited by
the low prices; and the increased consumption
shows distinctly that the bulk of the people
have benefited. The masses have been en-
nched. a different, and. according TO the
common belief, an improved distribution Of the