New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-05-15

step in this direction be viii IND himself better
able to pay the storekeeper; but let him aban-
don tie cultivation Of his cleared fields aud de-
vote the whole or any undue portion of his
labor to the clearing Of more land, with view
10 the enlargement of his farm, and the day OF
ruin Will be near at hand. This latter course
Was the one pursued from 1885 70 1898, and the
consequences became ysible-frst in the short
supply and high prices Of food; next, in the ne
eessity for adding food to the list of imports;
thirdly. in the augmenting rspidity with which
our foreign debt was increased; fourthly, IN the
decline of credit abroad and at home; and, last
IL. in bankruptcy to the rich and starvation TO
the poor rendering necessary that change OF
policy which led to the improvement that FOL
lowed so closely on the passage of the act OF
1872
Let our correspondent look at what is now going
on around him, and he will see that it is precise
" the same that occurred in the period of 1886,
= aud g: that the cause is the same, and that
the same effects--a high price of food, and me-
cessity for its importatiOn-are being produced.
We have closed and are daily closing the mills,
furnaces and factories, at which were being pro-
ing out farmers, laborers and mechanics by hun
dreds of thousands, to employ Themselves IN
manufacturing machines, by help of which large
quantities of food are to be produced at some ta-
tire time. In the meantime food has become
so scarce-because of the necessity for feeding
those who have ceased to be producers while
| continuing to be cOnsumers-that men, women
and children now starve for want Of it, and the
growing inability to purchase any commodities
other than food is rapidly destroying the demand
for labor that has thus far existed. With every
step in this direction the difficulty must in
crease. A continuance of the present prices of
food will throw thousands more out of employ
ment, and production will diminish. This, In
time. will drive thousands to the West to make
new farms, and they, like their predecessors,
will have to be supported. And thus we shall
be forced to consume largely of the food Of Can
ada. with great addition to the demand for gold
to be exported, with corresponding tendency to
the destruction of credit abroad and at home,
and equal tendency toward still further forcing
our population into the construction of farms on
which food will at some future time be pro-
| duced. If such course as this does not end in
ruin, the age of miracles cannot be regarded as
| having passed away.
But, it will be said, this state of things is good
for the farmer, even though the laborer and the
artisan perish for want Of food. Such is the
doctrine of British Free-traders, who teach that
! it is good to buy labor cheap and sell it dear,
and that in so doing lies the whole secret of the
duty of man TO his fellow man and to his Creator.
| Their system is one of universal discord. At
one moment they urge the farmer to crush the
manufacturer that food may be made dear, and
at the next they urge the manufacturer to crush
the farmer that food may be cheapened; and thus,
by combination with the Pro-Sayery party they
| achieve the ratification of such measures as the
recent sham Reciprocity Treaty, now strongly
recommended by Free-traders as means OF ena-
bling us to feed ourselves, although but seven
years since Mr.. Walker informed US that by this
time our exports of food would amount to hun
dreds of millions of dollars
The interests of the farmer and the manufac
turer are one and the same. Neither can fail to
profit by the prosperity of the other, nor can
either fail to suffer by what causes suffering in
tie other. When the farmer permits himself to
be led to aid in the adoption of measures tend
ing TO prevent the extension of manufactures,
he makes a sad mistake, as was clearly shown
at the close of the British Free-trade period
that terminated in the passage of the act OF
1872 For years before, as we have already
shown, the whole population of the country had
been driven in the direction of creating new
farms, and when at last they became productive
OF food for sale the effect was seen in an unu-
sual prostration of the farming interest. In
l5l0, as shown by our table, the price of -four fell
to half of what il had been but three years preyi-
ously; and yet, low as it was, the laborer and
the mechanic could not purchase, for they were
unable TO sell their labor. The crop of l5ll-2
was short and prices rose for that single year,
only to fall again; for immense as was the in
crease OF consumption under the tariff of
loi2, the increase of suppy-owing to the vast
extent to which new farms had been created
fully kept pace with il, the increase in our
product of cereals in the seven years from
$40 to l647, having been forty per cent, or two
hundred and fifty millions of bushels. But for
the vast extent to which the domestic demand
was stimulated BY the act of 1912, the ruin of
the farmers would have been complete; for
there existed then no foreign market TO which
our food could be sent. Had the system under
which that market was created been continued,
We should now be producing far more than ever,
and the domestic demand would be absorbing
the whole; but il suited the Free-traders TO