Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1855-02-07


To atone for sins your first child shall be twins
Och, hone widow Machree.
LET Us BECOME MORE AMERICANIZED.
An APPEAL TO AMERICAN WoMEN:-Mothers,
Daughters. Sisters, Read. Reflect And Aet.-The
following article from the Boston Transcript is
thought to present in SO clear light the real
cause of the peouniary difficulties under which the
country has been long suffering. that it has been
printed for general circulation in various forms.
The remedy lies in general system Of retrench-
nezt, and, especially. in tbs encouragement of
home manufactures. If each individual will de-
termine 10 do his her duty in the primises. re-
lief, permanent relief, and an avoidenee of future
evil, may be safely promised But no merely tenn
porary check to importatons viii answer the pur
pose The victim of gluttOny or intemperance
must maintain habitua caution if he would recov-
er strength of frame and yigor of limb Editors
of papers earnestly requested to copy this Ap-
peal and all true patriots enioined to promote
its general circulation. Copies of it. in every
share, should be eheaply printed. and generally
distributed. Shall this appeal be made in vain
"HARD TINEs.-Everbodv talks and thinks
about the hard times and almost everybody feels
them, and knows by bitter experience what they
mean But very few stop to consider, as carefully
AS they should, what is the of all the suffer
ing and anxiety they share or witness, or what
remedy there may be for either Some attribute
our troubles to the banks, and demand more dis
counts-as if the banks were not always eager to
do just as much business as they do lawfully
and safely. Some attribute them to the great
frauds of agents, who have msmanaged the affairs
OF great corporations, and created a wide dis
trust-as If a few unprincipled men could. by mere
speculations blight whole land worth million
times more than they have cheatedit out of. And
others give other reasons for them. Each of these
reasons may have some weight but no one of them
is OF much significance, nor could all put together
produce such effects witness or account for
Them. 1t is the psopls-the mass of the pg0Dls-
that make the trouble. No less power can bring
about such results. The universal depression and
enxiety.
Il an individual sneods moro than his ;,co,na
everybody knows that he must retrench or be
ruined If the whole nation runs into similar ex-
TaFagance-anation being only mass of individ
1ais-the whole nation must retrench or be ruined
In the United States, for several years back we
have been spending extrayagantIy, and the con-
sequence is that there is q general embarrass-
ment and troubie and we begin to hear cry to
know the and ind the remedy. The cause
Is as plain as the way to church; the remedy is
equally plain, but by no means so agreeable We
have bought more than pay for with our
present incomes. We must therefore, retrench. or
go on suffering more and more.
That this is the true state of the may be
made clear by two examples. taken from the op-
posite extremes of folly. The Secretary of
the Treasury tells that in our la a7 financial year
we imported thirty three millions worth of silk
goods. Silks produce at home only in small
quantities and it is the merest luxury. We eshould
be az warm and as well off, physically. in all re-
spects, without spending dollar on it. Now, if
we want to know what is done with it, look at the
dresses of our women whose husbands and fathers
their parlors. which are becoming mere monu-
ments of vanity and bad taste by their heavy, in
elegant extravaganza. Or what. perhaps, is yet
more obvious, look at our large hotels, and the
people who frequent them. One of them, in New
York. whose Ladies' Ordinary was lately a sight
like show at the play house, had danask curtains
IN its drawin ing rooms that cost fifteen thousand dol
lars. At the last accounts they were in the sher-
i'll 3 hands. Private parlors of the same fashion
are coming fast to the same end.
But let us go to the other extreme of our folly
We are compelled to import silks if we nsust have
them; but If there is any thing of which we have
enough and to spare, tits Stoues-marbIe and gran
lite ard the sand stone, and all kinds of stones
New England and the Middle States are full of
them. But quantities Imp0rted from
France. Churches and houses. in no small num-
bers. are built of them in New York and BROOKLYN
and elsewhere. One person in New York we un-
derstand, offers hundred tons of them for
sale. Next, We ought to hear of importing dirt
to coverup our own rocks, lest the sight of them
should reproach with senseess extraya-
gance. Sancho. in Don Quixote, characterizes a
man 3 folly by saying, he wants better bread than
can be made Of wheat. Do we want better chur-
ches and houses than be built of Quincy and
Rockport granite, or Berkshire and Vermont mar
BILE, or Connecticut sandstone The yery supges-
tion is ridiculous
But there is no need of such seperate illustra-
tions. Our importations for the last two years
show our extravagance and folly, in The gross, just
as plainly as French silks and French bull
ding stones show them in detaI Take. for exam
pie. the years 1874 and 1845, and compare them
with the years 1853 and 1854, and see what the
Secretary of the Treasurer says about them; we
mean what he says about merchandise and goods
ofevery sort imported and consumed in the Uni
ted States in those years, taking the amount as
timated at the places whence they shipped
His table runs as follows:
Year Value Population. For Capital
In 1874, 500 $50 900 1891. 900 SIS 05
In 1916, 10I, ,907. 900 19,7S4, 900 10
In 1883, 230, 10000 25.000.400 10 05
In 1854, 279,7I2,000 25.500, 600 10 90
That is, in ten years. we have almost exactly
doubled the average proportion of our importaions
for each individual in the country. We have paid
in the places where the goods were shipped, ten
dollars for every man, woman and child in the
United States-including the slayes-and to these
ten dollars We must add charges and duties, and
Of sixteen or eighteen dollars of mechandize i'm
ported for each soul on soil, zach of the last
two years. Such monstrous fact needs only to be
stated. 1t needs no Poor Richard to cypher out
inland 10 0af ont Of ouY tYnubIee il piain that