Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1855-03-29
SUPPORT YOUR OWN.

Ma. EDiToR-Will you allow me to call
the attention of the citizens of Litchfe to
one undeniable truth-that it is their bound
on duty to support their own mechanics.
They are worthy, industrious and indis-
pensable class Of men, and we find no town
or village Aourishing without their aid. In
decd, their presence is always a true index
of the condition Of the place, whether it is
advancing in wealth and importance or sink
ing in decay.
Whene, Q: we pass through village and
hear the frequent sound Of the carpenter
mallet, the hum Of factories, the clink of
the blacksmith's anvil, the sound Of the
hammer on the shoemaker's lap-stone, or
see the ascending steam from the ha,ter's
kettle-that village, we say to ourselves, is
fourishing. Itcannot be otherwise; for the
producers are actively employed and out
number the consumers. Whenever and
wherever this is the case the people are
growing wealthy, and are at the same time
training up the rising generation to habits
Of industry and morality. Whereas if a
city or village pursue the opposite Of this
course, negects its mechanics and supports
those Of some foreign town, those who can
will be compelled to go to some other place
and those who are compelled by the force Of
circumstances to remain will become idle
and profigate; they will cease to produce
and become consumers. In few years
they will become beggars and their children
ignorant and vicious.
II there is any trutlfin the assertion that
we ought as nation to give the preference
TO domestic manufactures the fact is equally
true with regafd to community both are
sustained by the same arguments. liza mer-
chant would have around him, sustained
customers, let him by every means in his
power support and foster the mechanics OF
his village, and as they become more wealthy
his custom will increase, especially in those
articles on which he makes the greatest pro-
fits. The habit Of some of our merchants
Of the village of Litchfeld of importing
cheap and half made articles to compete
with our mechanics, is short sighted and
wrong, both as regards the mechanic and
consumer and if the merchant would look
further into the operation of things he would
find that he crossed the path of his own in
terest by so doing.
lie, the merchant bring the ease to his
own door, and he may perhaps better un
derstand it. Suppose that every individual
who possesses means and who uses in his
family four or Eve hundred dollars worth o.
goods per annum, should, instead of buying
Of him at retail, 60 to some city wholesale
establishment and purchase his years sup.
ply-would he not in bitterness condemn
such illiberality! And could he not say ts
him with truth that he was warning against
his own interest by destroying the bushes.
Of his own town and giving it to another
and that his llttleness would react upor
him in double-fold by the decrease of til,
value Of his property and business, SO il
the case above could the mechanic say to tn,
merchant.
We say then let all classes supper. eacl
other, and by the mutual exchanges keel
that money at home, which, il expende,
abroad tends to destroy the business Of you
neighbors and which in turn destroys you
own. nee.