The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-04-14
The Prospects OF the Farmers.

-Four years have now elapsed since Mr..
WALKER made his exhibit to the nation of the
benign results of his new tariff in swelling the
export Of food, carefully avoiding to credit any
portion of the trade to the account Of the DO
tato rot. Such being the results Of single
year, what, said he, may not be expected in
future2 The starving millions of Europe are
to be fed, and our domestic exports. which this
year have been ............. l5O, 574 .S44
must continue to increase, as we
now see them to have increased,
giving us in IS4s the amount Of 222 1913, $50
IN lS49. .-....... 329. 959, 993
in 1850. .. ASS, 445, 056
And but few more years were to be required
to enable them to reach the magnificent sum Of
thousands of millions Of dollars"
We beg our readers now to remark that all
this mass of absurd calculation was based
upon the fact that the potato rot having caused
a large demand in one year, that demand was
to be continued in succeeding years, and that
the people, who were starving because they
could not raise potatoes, were, nevertheless, to
be rich enough to buy from us, at high prices,
I,
and to pay us for it. In what they were to
pay, the Secretary never troubled himself to in
quire. Had he done so, this extraordinary
collection of figures, for which no merchants
clerk in the Union would have made himself
responsible, would never have been given to the
world.
The scheme has failed The whole CONT
nent Of Europe does not take from us even
twenty thousand dollars worth Of food, the pro-
duce Of the grain-growing States, and the mar
ket Of England takes from us less than it did
six years since, when the Corn laws were in
full operation. The domestic market is gradu
ally disappearing, and no foreign one has been
created 10 take its place; and the consequence is,
that wheat has recently touched lower point
than it has seen for many years. Under these
circumstances it is Of some importance to our
| farmers and our land owners, and even TO our
| railroad-makers and projectors, to form some
idea Of what is to be the prospect in future; and
that they may do so, we invite their attention
| to passage from an editorial in the London
I EconOm,sf--the highest British free trade au-
ihority--receved by the last steamer In reply
to an inquiry Of one Of the new Ministers, as to
what is to be the future effect on the supply OF
food to England, resulting from tina, crop or
| the continent, that journal asks:
"Why IL there not at this moment a terribl.
| scarcity the continent, extending more or les,
from the vistula to the Rhine, from the North Sea
to tho Adriatic; and England, instead OF beine
| herself short Of food, 10 actually sending away
cargo after cargo, week after week, to tho cont
ncnti IL 10 also undcnisbe that, but for the ons
| shilling duty on corn, Of the existence of which
Major Bercsford 10 probably ignorant. like LORD
Derby, England would poesess a great dea
more food, and would be able to supply the suffer
| ere on the continent with more on cheaper
terms"
Famine now RACES over an important portion
Of the continent of Europe. The "starvine
millions" that were to absorb Of our food 10 Tho
extent Of hundreds Of millions Of dollars, now
CRY aloud, but who supplies thcm' The far
mers Of Ohio, or Illinois, or Wisconsin, or ever
those Of virgnia--the land which closes he
mines of coal and ore and lets her vast water
power run to waste, and sinks from year Il
year in her position relative to other States
II IA none of these; for. even in the face Of IA
nine the trade in food of all these States will
the European continent has no existence. In thu
face Of famine, prices abroad continue so low tina
the farmers are unwilling to sell; and nothing