The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-18
! Commerce, Manufacturer and Il
ternal Inprevements.

ssslAern Commerce, Manufacturer and In.
ternal Inprevcnents.
Our readers must have seen that we have not
ascrbed SO much utility or Importance to the
extension CT Southern trade and manufactures
rs many of our contemporaries have done. MOI
have We urged the construction of Internal i'm
provements either by public or private capital
or credit. The reason IL, not that We underratt
their value, but that. as we think, they are gen
orally over.ra'ed, and particularly in speculative
periods like the present. We believe that, ex
except in seasons of embarrassment, and whe,
general dependency exists, the tendency is TOT
great Of capital and enterprise towards com
merce, manufactures and internal improvements
We think that they are generally overdone; to
the loss Of individual and public skill, labor and
wealth. We are aware that in thus dscouraging
movement commonly popular and prevalent
we incur the impulation of fogyism, of gno-
rance, of iliberality, and of being behind the
age generally. We admit we are behind this
age in many things, and we intend to keep be-
hind it, good ways.
We are convinced that commerce is, in the ag-
gregate and average, an Improbable pursuit
that it does not refund and reward the capital,
skill and labor engaged in it-and that in almost
any series of years there is a net balance
against it in the account of profit and loss--a
balance which is paid by agriculture out of it's
own profits, which find their way into commerce
from the tendency among young farmers, or the
sons Of farmers, to resort to commerce and to
cities with the expectation Of making money fast
or, and ofenjoying The Injuries of cities and their
supposed exemption from labor. Hence, although
we admit the utility and necessity ofcommerce,
we consider 1t an expense in itself to the COM
munity, as government is, but unlike government
an expense to those engaged in it, ard hence,
since there is morbid tendency to embark in
it, that tendency should be repressed rather than
stimulated. The same thing is true of manu-
features. Accordingly in all countries where
commerce and manufactures predominant, and
particularly in the classes engaged in them, the
great mass are poor and dependant, the actual
capital invested or owned belongs 10 the very
few, the distribution of property is very unequal
and the aggregate or average of wealth is below
that of the agricultural countries or classes oil
similar race or civilization. Internal improve.
ments are the more immediate offspring of com.
merce and manufactures, and herce when adap
ted TO the wants and means of a community are
among the benefits conferred by these two pur.
suits:-when extended beyond, are among their
evils And accordingly partaking of the specu.
lalive and exaggerated character of both, Inter
nal improvements are almost invariably in ex.
cess-as the low rate of dividends or income on
turnpikes, canals and even on railroads too we'll
attest. For we hold that the income which such
works afford is the true standard of their utility
If money invested in roads or canals will not
pay the usual interest on money, the work is moi
worth the money. 1t is true, such works in
crease the value of other property in their neigh
borhood-but not more than other investments
OF capital. For every useful improvement, whe-
ther of farm, ship or loom, increases the
value Of other adjacent property. And the true
criterion of any proposed investment continues.
therefore,to be the income it affords as compared
with other investments of the same neiohbor
hood
Now there may be such exceptions as that
road or canal will afford such peculiar benefits
or obviate such peculiar evils, as to Justify it,
construction on the same principles on which we
build State house, or support government
not for its income, but for its necessity. But such
cases are 80 rare ms to be clearly exceptional
The general rule therefore, is, that internal i'm
provements are to be regarded merely as amore
the modes Of investing capital, and ought to be
limited by the income they will probably afford
Hence they are not the proper work of State or
federal governments; for government is bad
calculator, and a very bad economist, and in all
its financial operations is continually perverted
by political, party and sectional interests. Hence
although almost every State in the Union has
embarked in these works, every one, without,
perhaps, single one, has lost largely by
them-New York not excepted. And the total
of the internal improvements in the United
States, federal State and corporate, does not now
probably pay one per cent. net on their cost, an,
would not sell for ten per cent of it, TIL,
coantry cannot have lost less than FIVE hundred
millions of dollars already by the excuses tt
which tho policy has been carried, and at thi.
moment we are in the midst of greater excesse.
than have ever before been committed, or ever
dreamed. We are informed that the singh
State of Ohio is now in debt about eighty mil
lions of dollars for railroads alone, undertake
by corporations. The public debt of the Stat
ia about twenty millions more, contracted fo
her canal system, which does not yield third {
the revenue required 10 pay the interest. He
debt for these works alone, amounts to abou
one-ffth of all her property. And the yer
construction Of such works with credit pre-
duces such a sudden abundance of none