Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1854-12-20
THE COMsIERCTAL PARALYSIS.

We are daily and hourly reminded By every
thing which surrounds us, that the country is
verging upon a state of universal insolvency.
If we pick mp an exchange it is only to find
an account of banks breaking, manufactures
closing, and business men suspending. If We
go into the street it is only to meet some anx-
ious inquirer for information where to obtain
money If we open our letters it is only to
find dun. or an apology for non-payment of
money over due. In whatever direction We
turn cur gaze, we see something to indicate
the unparalleled scarcity Of ofmoney atprcTails,
not in any leealiss over ti he
--..-.,,,trry ana arrangement, through which
whole financial system IS passing. The ques-
tion naturally presents itself, what is the
source of this melancholy situation of our
commercial affairs +?
1t viii be observed that the banks and bank
ers who are suspending in different parts OF
the country, have securities plenty, 5st no mon
ey. That the merchants, of whose failures we
are hearing from day to day, have property in
abundance, hut are unable to command money
That the unsaHfaeturcrs who are discharging
their hands arr In want of money, and that, in
short, this valuable commodity is not in the
country. What then, has become Of it? It
has gone TO pay for the enormously excessive
influx of foreign manufactures, which we
ought to have, ourselves, in abundance. This
is plainly apparent from the fact, that while
the financial affairs OF the citizen are embar-
rassed and paraIysed, the government Golfers
are filled to overfowing, with the proceeds of
the tariff for revenue That the aggregate
value of imports shows an ercess of S26 ,0OO,-
600 over the total aggregate of exports, inclu-
ding specie! That, consequently, the coun-
try is flooded with French and English goods
and paralysis has fallen upon all the leading
branches of American enterprise. We have
been exporting the money which forms the
basis Of the credit of our banks, merchants,
manufactures, and business men, thus causing
a deficiency in the medium of exchange,
which renders the labor-power of the country
inactive, and permits our raw material to lie
inert in the bosom of the earth, while we are
overstocked with the waves of the foreign
producer. Let this depletion of the country
of its gold and silver, to pay for the fruits of
alein labor, continue but for a short time long
er, and bankruptcy is inevitable.
The cause and effect being known, what is
the remedy! Certainly not, as the President
recommends in l.is message a still greater re-
duction of the duties on imports. Nor would
such measure accomplish the object he de-
sires-a reduction of the revenue. On the
contrary, ii would stimulate importations, and
thus keep up the revenue by their increased
quantity. For years, Great Briton has been
reducing her tariff; yet her revenue from Gus
toms is larger now than at any former period.
The remedy for both evils is to pursue the
same course of policy by which our country
was so rapidly resuscitated from 1852 to 1917
the policy of seprotection for the sake of pro-
tection," and not merely for the collection of
revenue. We must stop the drain of gold.-
We must make our cloth, our own iron,
and grow our own sugar, instead of getting
them from abroad. We viii thus preserve in
our own land the medium Of exchange, and
keep alive the labor-power of the country
Then would the confidence and prosperity of
business revive. The mills and workshops
would reopen, foreign debt and domestic
<tagnation would no longer exist, and strong
within ourselves we might defy the world.