The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1858-11-13
The Policy OF a Tariff.


lis also most excellent Tariff man. We
hope he will give shape aud direction to the
doctrines ofthe Lecompton party organs in
this State, some of which seem not to be
aware that the world has made revolution
since 1876. In speaking of our past folly in
bringing coal from Pittsburg for our CRATES
and furnaces, while we were dwelling upon
beds of coal equal to any in the Appalachian
range, ne says:
In our ignorance aud prejudice we are still
illustrating the absurdity of " carrying Goals
to Newcastle" There are in all probability
as good Goals on the line of the Indianapolis
and Terre Haute Railroad, as can be found
on the banks of the Monongahela, yet In
dianapolis has had to rely partially on the
latter brought six hundred miles by hazard
Gus and costly navigation, and 100 miles
over railroad. w r
There is now as much folly in bringing
English and Belgian Goals, incorporated in
to cotton cloth and hardware, to the Indi-
ana coal fields and it is singular anoma-
" that we are, at this moment, expending
more of our Goals, labor and capital, in the
transit of materials and their product out Of
the shortest and natural line of direction
than would suffice for the conversion of the
materials into the product at home; and it
is a pregnant fact that the value of our la
Dor for the last ten years misapplied in this
respect would have built and equipped, on
this central coal field, cotton mills of sufi-
Gent capacity for the manufacture of our
whole cotton crop, and the consequent doub-
ling and possibly quadrupling of our exports
and corresponding imports. We have the
power, the labor, and the money, and STU
pidlJ use them an in sending abroad our
bulky and rude staples, aud bringing back
small portion of the product as full
equivalent.
These are arguments too palpable and
plain to be resisted The coal fields of the
lower Ohio are to be the future sites of the
largest manufacturing cities on the conti-
nent; their advantages are proven by the
limited experiments already made in manu-
featuring, of which the Cannclton mill is
the most conspicuous illustration. Mr.. Smith
says: 1ftE f.t ST
Our experiment of manufacturing cotton
at Canuelton, in first class western mill,
has been rs a whole, emiuently successful.
The increase of this branch of industry here
and at other favorable points on the coal
sections of the State, is as certain as the
fact that, in all the older countries, manu-
featuring facilities, far inferior to ours, have
invariably attracted dense and thrifty
manufacturing population. | have not the
present leisure to discuss this more fully
than to say that our cotton goods are equal
to any of their class made elsewhere, that
1,b =, 81
efficient and reliable as can be found that
we have an advantage in the convenience,
quality and cheapness of our material, over
the New England mills, and on the fixed
capital employed, of about ten per cent. per
anuum that our subsistence, power and
heat are cheaper than can be obtained in any
manufacturing district and that we need
only full set of cotton mills and the home
supplies Of auxiliary work shops, which such
set of mills would employ, to SHOW less
cost of spinning and weaving the great staple
of our country, than can be shown in any
cotton mills in Europe or America.
Evansville is as favorably situated as
Cannelton. BY shaft, three hundred feet
deep, coal can be had everywhere around
her. Her facilities Of transportation by
river, canal and railroad, for procuring th,
raw materials, and for the distribution O
manufactured products, are unsurpassed by
any place on the river. By making known
the local advantages ofCannelton, Mr. Smith
says a million of foreign capital has in few
years, been attracted to that point. A proper
knowledge of our resources and advantage
might have brought double or three times
that sum to this city, and quadrupled the
value of its lands and houses. 1t would on
ly have required the nse of a moderate de-
gree of intelligence little public spirits
union of effort among the. citizens, and the
consumption of kcg of Printers ink ant
fifty reams of paper, to have accomplished
it. The press is power greater than 81
five hundred horse power steam engines, t.
attract and accumulate wealth in a com
munity. Our people have not yet learned
to use it or to appreciate its value.
If Congress should pass, the comm,
winter, a tariff bill that will impart conf
give new stimulous to manufacturing en-
terprise, this is one of the chief point t
which its attention should be attracted. TIL
workshops of New England, must be fnall.
transferred to the food, and to the coal an,
iron mines of the West. We are in the cen
tire of the finest and most extensive field c
both ore and coal, on the continent, wit
lines of natural and artificial communca
tons, radiating in all directions from us
If when the movement from New Englan,
bcgins--as it inevitable soon must-wha
more eligible and att active point can tn
Eastern mechanic find than our city an
neighborhood presents? We see that
cotton mill has just been finished in Rhod
Island, by the Messrs. Spagne, that has COS
100000 This firm has five or six othe
factories and have, probably, from So, OOo
600 to 100000 in cotton factories an
calico print works. 1t would be difficult t
estimate the sum of advantage that tn
transfer of the enterprise of such fri
from the East to our vicinity would hav
upon the value Of the property and pro;