New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-12-08


our cotton growing States is rdiculous since they
possess advantages Of coil, climate and labor which
must always give them the lead, and must CO.
able them to drive all competitors from the field.
The Herald even maintains that there is pecu-
isrty in the climate of eur cotton growing States
which especially fts them, of all countries in the
world, and to the exclusion Of all competition, to
supply the world with cotton. The only difficulty
which The Herald foresees is that pointed out BY
Governor Adams, thu deficiency of labor and it
goes into an elaborate calculation to show tina. the
present and prospective supply Of slave labor is not
adequate to the purpose of supplying the probable
demand for cotton.
1t is unques sionaby one of the greatest ecoc omi-
cal objections to slave labor, especially when de-
prived, a. slave labor in this country is of the
adjunct Of foreign slaye-trade that the supply Of
it is so limited that any considerable increase in the
demand for it raises the price Of slaves to such
figure a. to make any large increase of production
either mpracticable or very hazardous speculation.
TIE slave cultivator who wishes to extend his crop
must put to risk not merely, like the freelabOr cul
tvatOr, the additional amount and value Of labor
necessary to make that particular crop; he is
obliged to risk great sum-if he is so lucky as to
be able to command tin the purchase, out and
out, at prices much more likely to fall than to rise,
Of the additional laborers he employs and, having
once got those abOrers on his hands, he is obliged to
keep on employing them, even though the market
for the article which be produces should become
OverstOcked.
We cannot therefore consider that the fact that
our cottor.g growing States are also Slave States,
and that our American cotton is mainly produced
by slave labor, gives us any advantage over other
competition. In fact, it is an obstacle in our way,
and one which will be felt more and more in pro-
portion as the demand for cotton increases Slaves
never commanded so high price as they do now;
ard, as labor is the chief item of expense in the
production of cotton, it must cost us more to pro-
duce cotton than ever before. Hence we must not
rashly conclude that the profits of cotton cutiva-
ton advance in proportion to the gross SUM for
which the aggregate crop is sold. Nor is this in
crease Of the cost of production the sole disadvan
tage Every rise in the price of cotton is attended
with new efforts and experiments toward opening
new sources of supply. Perhaps the partial sue
cess which has hitherto attended these experiments
has been Occasioned much as any thing by relax
aticns of effort caused BY the dropping back of
pr ces to low figure. A permanent rise of price,
consequent not merely upon accidental short crops
or upon the consumption Overtakng the prOduc-
ten, but upon permanent enhancement in the cost
of production, would, We are induced to think,
bring quite number of new competitors iuto the
field.
The two advantages which, more than anything
else, have given to the United States their great
predOminancy in the cotton market have been, not
any peculiarly Of climate or command of labor,
but their unlimited supply of new lands, and the
accessibility of these lands to water-carriage. We
have thus been able, with the same amount OF
labor, to raise and get to market larger guam
tty of cotton and, what is Of not less Importance
the cotton produced from our virgin lands has been
of longer staple and superior quality. But this
advantage Of virgin lands gradually losing.
The crop of the older States-Or, at least, of that
part of them where cotton has been cultivated for
twenty years and upwards lees to the acre and
of quality inferior to that produced in the newer
States These newer States are also rapidly under
going the same process of deterioration Cotton cul
yation as carried on in the United Safes, is terri
bic destroyer of land Already the lands nearest to
the water courses have been sensiby deteriOrated,
and hence the necessity of making the more remote
lands accessible by means Of railroads, the amount
of slaye labor devoted to the construction of which
is one of the causes of the present temporary high
value of slaves In this connection it is important
10 recOect that the cotton. growing States do not
consist, like those north of the Ohio, of immense
stretches of fertile land. The quantity fit for the
cultivation of cotton is comparatively limited. De-
duct the pine barrens, the swamps and the noun
tains, with the quantity that must be employed for
raising food, and the cotton lands are so limited
that, within no very distant period, our planters
will be reduced to stand on the same level with
their foreign competitors in the cultivation OF old
lands.
Then again as to transportation. 1t Is not In
America only that railrO ,ds built. They are in
progress also IN India, and as the best cotton lands
are situate in the interior, they can hardly fail to
exercise certain iDAu ,nce in augmenting the crop
Of that country, already (taking into account the
vast domestic consumPtion) perhaps the greatest
cotton producing country in the world.
Upon review Of the whole case, our slavehold-
ing friends of the South ought not to allow their
leads to be turned BY the present high prices OF
slaves and cotton. Governor Wise's famous
scheme for enrching Virginia by raising the value
of slaves to five thousand dollars the head is self
contradiction because there is no sort of productive