New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-02-17


keep all my means ready for buying cheapy at
sherlff's ssles. My father did 90 in 1919, and be
doubled bis money. did so in l542, and doubled
my money. ! mean to do SO at the next Free
Trade crash; aud, that may be ready for it,
must keep my money loose. Free Trade times ate
good for SPECTATORS however bad they may be for
those WHO work. Poor wretches /! They are to be
pited. They toll and labor, but we always eat
them up at last-takng their houses mills and
furnaces in return for the little money We let them
have"
The want of confidence is unve sal, and il in.
creases from week TO week. Why? Because
every day increases our dependence on Europe for
articles of strict necessity. Scarcely a week
elapses that does not bring an account of the
destruction of one, TIVE or three mills of various
kinds; but who builds or rebuids mills Nobody
Our population is increasing at the rate Of almost
million year, but our means of clothing them are
decreasing and not increasing. Going into the
shops, the spectacle that everywhere meets our
eyes is that of the substitution Of foreign commodi
ties for the domestic ones that recently were there;
aud why? Because our own people are being de-
stroyed BY the necessity they are under of paying
luxurious interest. Men who pay from two to
five per cent per month-as ia the case with the
smaller manufacturers-csnnot compete with
Others who borrow at little more than that per year.
Why is money so dear! Because it is every
where being boarded Because, il the Treasury
statements are true, there are more than $780,
100000, if not even $l5O,0OO0OO, 10 private
hOards-lying there as useless as would be
q similar weight Of pebble-stones. How is
money to be cheapened! How are cur me-
cbanics, our men Of business, to be relieved from
the fearful operation that is now eating out their
very vitals BY restoration of confidence that
will bring out the vast sums now boarded, and
make them active. Will that result from the
adoption of measures of the kind now agitated in
Congress- Let US see.
1t is proposed to refund all the duties that have
been pad on railroad iron. The passage of that
bill afording promise for the passage Of future
similar one, every road contractor will, of course,
prefer foreign iron to domestic. The money dis
gorged by the Treasury will 60 abroad to purchase
iron, aud our own mills will be closed. Will that
increase confidence Will that diminish the pri-
vste boards 1t is, however, proposed to do away
altogether with the duty on railroad iron. Let it be
DONE and rolling mills, furnaces and mines will every
wherebe closed, and then we shall have to 60 abroad
for the whole of the lSO 600 tuns now made at home
thus causing an augmentation Of the foreign price
to the extent of f2 per tun on 300, 900 tdns; and
xr;fb H.. 40 hat hoxo -; Il tun
now made at home would cost, at the present price
abroad about 81, 00O 900. Add to this $40 per tun
on $780, 600 tuns, $4,000, 600, and We have total Of
$10,300000. Here is an addition t, our present
enormous imports Of no less than $4,000, 600.
How are they to be paidl BY gold, stocks and
bonds. Will that increase confidence Will
that diminish the private boards On the con.
trary, for every dollar withdrawn from the
public hoard, five will be added to the privae
hoards. Money may not, for the moment be much
drawn on cal loans, but working men will find the
rate of interest increase from day to day.
The Committee of Ways and Means seek to re-
duce the revenue by reducing duties on many art-
cles, both raw and manufactured. Will the passage
of their bill increase confidence Will it bring out
the money that is now secreted! Not dollar of it,
Every man who reads the law will see that it must
increase importation, and increase the drain Of
gold; and every one will seek most anxiously to
keep his funds loose, so a. to be ready for the crash
that is to come.
We are assured that the free admission Of raw
materials will cause the building Of mills, but it is
the merest falacy ever suggested by men old enough
TO know better. Who can build mills with money
build them when stock in the best mills of the cOun
try is selling at half its cost Who will build fur
naces or rolling mills Let each reader answer the
question for himself. Would he build mill, or q
furnace, with the feeling he has, that crisis is i'm
pending which must sweep away every man who is
at all in debt, and close the mills aud furnaces of
those who are mott II he would not, why should
others do it What he would do, would be TO lock
up his money in safe, or lend it out to be repaid
at the shortest notice. Short loans are now the
rule; and for the reason that there exists none Of
the confidence which leads to the making Of long
ones.
The system Of the Government looks to the
destruction of credit and the expulsion of the
precious metals. Seeking, as it does, the contrac-
ton of the currency in both directions, it affords
little cause for surprise that it has always tended to
raise the price of mOney-thus enrichirg those
already rich at the expense of those who are poor.
Twenty years since We closed our mills, and had
large surplus revenue. To ease the Treasury, is
was distributed, and then five years later the
Government was begging for money, and the people
begging for food. Now, We close our mills, and find
the same result-a large surplus 10 be AGAIN DIS