Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1857-11-28


The following article, taken from that able
periodical the e Plo50, the Loons and Anva, was
handed US some days ago for publication. We
very cheerfully afford it space in our columns,
and direct attention to it as an article worthy
of more than one careful perusal:
At a recent fair of the "Hampshire, Hamp-
den, and Franklin Agriculture Society" held at
Northampton Mass, the orator of the day, Ex-
Gov. Everett, illustrated this subject by COM
pairing Massachusetts, now with what she was
half century ago. "Then," said he, 'agricul-
ture was almost the only element of our domes-
tic industry. There were then only 10 cotton
mills in the country, and not one item IN ten
now contained in our industrial statistics had
existence. Now we can show million Of dol
lars of our productive industry for every day in
the year.
And so the workers of Massachusetts are paid
a million day for the toll of heads and hands.
What pity that her statistics do not run back
fifty years. But we venture to say that they
would show an annual industry Of less than
one twentieth of the present. Think of the
whole population grubbing among rocks and
houdcrs, not more than half million acres in
the whole State fit to cultivate without costly
Improvements, and no capital to make improve
mcnts with; think ola glutif agricultural produce
| ut that, everybody having little of that COM
modify and nothing else to sell, and nobody
wishing to buy it, because all grubbed for
themselves III ltidL LllIlSy tuu II gov any
money, paid it for foreign productions; think of
farmer carrying his veal twenty miles to a lit
tie country town, selling it for % cents pound
and taking saZy India cotton at cents yard
for pay; 1--WE have seen that done within much
less than fifty years. think OF the whole wealth
of the State, consisting at that time of old
brown school houses, that could just stand
alone, in churches so ugly that the evil spirits
/ certainly would not trouble the worshpers
less they devoid of all taste for architectural
beauty, ia agricultural implements that would
make Il decent horse laugh if he should see
them nowadays, and in land that, things
then were, was better to emigrate from than to
limmigTate to and you have pretty good view
of what Massachusetts, was fifty years ago.
Her people toiled prodigiouSly, and got little
for it. Still they toll. 1t is their nature Soil,
climate, education, every conceivable influence,
all conSpire to make them work. But the diff
ference is that they get something for it
They earn a million day. And what has made
this change? Manufactures. Not that manu-
featuring labor is better paid than agricultural,
but that agricultural labor is better rewarded
when manufacturing is carried on i'll its neigh
bornood. In our humble opinion Massachusetts,
and we ought TO know something about her, is
naturally the worst State in this Union for agri-
cultural purposes: On the whole do not
believe there is another spot the globe, where,
till the last fifty years, the people toiled hard
and got as little for it. The little, which the
people scattered over the 1000, 900 hard acres of
the State, earned in summer, the Boston mer-
chants were sure to take before the next spring.
Enough was retained this side the Atlantic to
make few prince merchants in Boston, and
the rest went to Europe TO pay for doOr-ockS
which wouldn't keep a rogue out and some
times wouldn't let the owner in, for log chains
that wanted tinkering amazingly often, and for
cotton shifting that wouldn't keep fellow warm,
nor always cover his nakedness very long.
Commerce had everything in its own way,
and its way to take to itself about all the
earnings of the people. Their system was es-
sentlally the free trade systcm and it cursed the
people They yoEt tvE d:tfe Or wish to work his
slaves, and for it had the pleasure of seeing the
Boston merchant and the English manufacturer
grow rich at their expense. Now the people OF
that State earn million n day. and it does not
quite all go straight to Boston, and thence to
England
Free trade principles, if fully carried out,
would reduce the whole American people, spite
OF eXhaustleSs resources, to Just the position of
Massachusetts people fifty years ago, all work.
ing at one calling, and ali working more for the
benefit of middle men than their own. That
tpIaSHcy Indian cOtton-thc epithet is none too
harsh-it makes us feel as if all the bcd-bugs in
creation were biting to think of it-came to us
by very roundabout course just as commerce
would like to have every thing come, that there
may be great many freights and heap of
profits
Let us see how it worked The girl in India
tuat spun ana WoSe II, probably got one cent 4
yard for her work the pedler who helped it
along to Calcutta may have sold it there for two
cents. The Calcutta merchant shipped at four
cents, and the London merchant gave it cant
Americanwards at eight cents. The Boston
merchant made on it just what he chose; the
country merchant ditto, and the Woodworking
farmer paid fifty cents, and paid in agricultural
produce dogcheaP. For what the worker at
one end got one cent, the worker at the other
paid fifty, and half dozen princely fortunes
were being built up by the way.
This is free trade, nothing more v less; no
fancy sketch. 1t is just what was ing on in
Massachusetts, less than fifty years -, when
the people couldn't earn million :, lay, nor
keep the smallest fraction of what they did earn.
If the majority want that state of things again,
we must have it. The mighty resources of the
country cannot save us from it. You NAV shout
free trade" till you are hoarse, but if you will
have it you are done for; mineral and agricultu-
raj resources never will be developed proTfta6Iy
by IA nation that spurns manufactures History
has written this with pen of iron Theories
about its being cheaper to buy than to make are
idle nonsense in the presence of such testimony.
The nation that pays its gold, or even its agf1-
cultural produce to any great extent for foreign
manufactures is doomed in advance nuSt 10