American Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1855-1860, 1855-05-24
Tho Independencs and the Depsnd.
enoo OF the West.

ilN iANA hANA|eAAaAnA ktV1uCl1 VI
Western States are the chief means by
which sea shore merchants and capitalists
become rich, From the profits Of our
trade the palaces in Fifth Avenue and
Beacon street are built. ald the millionaires
Of New York aud Boston are made. The
West is the granary Of the Union. from
whence tho people Of the Atlantic States
are fed; and yet. in consequence Of false
system Of trade. the West IS held subject 10
the money and produce brokers Of the big
Eastern cities. They toll not. neither do
they spin; and yet the men of toll in the
West. who till the earth. and produce the
staples necessary for existence, are made
subservient to the whims and caprices Of
the non producers. Why is it that the
balance of trade is generally against the
West, that Eastern Exchange ranges from
half to ore and half per cent. premium,
when we are the producers Of wealth, and
they are only the trafickers therein. Il is
because the West fails to avail itself of its
latent power. .
Why should we not make our own boots
and shoes in the West? Why should we
not make ou: own cotton and calicos, and
wollen goods? The raw materials for the
manufacture Of all these necessary articles
of clothing are cheaper here than in the
East; our wool goes TO Massachusetts, and
New York. to be manufactured, and we
have to bay it back in the various forms Of
merchandise; our hides go east to be tan.
ned, and we buy them back when made
into boots and shoes. The profits arising
from the manufacture of these and Other
articles make eastern men wealthy, and to
pay for them the products of our corn and
wheat field are used. When the people Of
the West understand more fully their real
power and Importance, they will bring a.
bont change. The West being the pro.
ducing section Of the country, ought to be
the most wealthy. Here it is that money
should be more abundant than in any 9th.
er part of the Union, but instead of that
we have the least capital; Money to-day in
New York and Boston is worth but six
per cent. Here it is hard to be got at less
than ten, with undoubted security.
We have been looking, and do now look,
10 the East for the means to build our rail.
roads and make our improvements. Our
railroad presidents and company inanciers
spend half their time in New York, dane
ing attendance to Wall street brokers and
capitalists-the men whom the West feeds,
the men whom the West has made rich.-
They never produce anything-they never
contributed to the material wealth of the
country; and yet they have been made rich,
and affect patronizing airs towards West
ern men, who ask to borrow money to car.
ry on some great public improvement,
which, when finished, is sure to add to the
already bloated wealth of the seaboard
cities. There is hardly a day that there
is not dozen presidents of Western rail
roads to be seen lobbying around the brok-
er's offices in Wall street, trying to induce
those gentlement to advance money on
Western bonds, stocks, and other securi.
ties. The money-lenders presume upon
this vast demand. They make their own
terms, and think they are comforting great
favor if they purchase good seven per cent
bonds at half or two-thirds their par value
And then the degrading character of thi:
service-how CALLING to man of indie.
pendent Western mind to be dancing at
tendance for weeks together at the heels
Of the jobbers in stocks, and brokers il
money! Put off from day to day with zeal
again tomorrow, am too busy to hea
your case to-day, have an engagement
up town." DC. And the Western man
perhaps who has been Il Julye,a Governor
a member of Congress, has to tie up hi,
maps, bundle up his papers, take up hi.
hat, make his bow, and clear the room o
his presence. He goes to his room in hi,
hotel, for which he pays his three dollar,
a day, and hopes the money king will give
him afavorable hearing on the morrow
The morrow comes, and a like indignity i.
offered. At length, after having spen
several hundred dollars in hotel and travel
ing expenses, hope dies withing him, anC
he comes back sadder if not wiser mar
than he was when he went away. Or il
he has accomplished any thing, if he has
sold his bonds or stocks, it has been a
such ruinous rates that the prospect of :
dividend to the original projectors or hold
ers of the stock, the mea who have mort
gagged their farms, and expended large
part of their hard earnings to help along
the enterprise, is poor indeed. All the
earnings of the road are swallowed up in
wear and tear expenses, and in paying the
interest on the bonds to enrich still more
the dwellers of the Fifth Avenue.
We hold that this whole thing is wrong
is demoralizing and slavish. 1t is under.
mining the spirit of independence of west.
ern men, and making them mere serfs and
beggars to an oligarchy of money-lenders
in the Atlantil cities-an olghrchy thai
depend upon western labor and western
products for their very existence. We
feed and we clothe them, and if our bust.
ness men, our enterprising men, and our
men of mind and character, would but take
bold of the natural resources Of the West
and manufacture as we'll as produce from
the earth-make their own clothing, las well
as raise their own food--be subject to nc
city and no class, but Independent of all
they would find their resources quadrupl.
ed, and their means 10 make and finish
their railroads ample, without having re.
course to the monied brokers of the sea.
board. When will western men learn theil
power, and shake off this poisoned shirt o.
Nessus which is eating into the marrow o.
people Gazette.
PLANS OF ATcHIsoN ~ Co-Gnorne