New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-01-12
TO TIE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES.
LETTER TX.

,ef as you Mr.. President, have SEEN in accordance
with any general law. On the contrary II u IN direct
exposition 10 a great law whose existence is every
where manifest Neither is the reduction IN ths pfoe
Of cotton q consequence Of any excess in the qnsaly
produced, a. YOU will be sats6ed when you reheo.
hat the total quantity produced IN the "1r1a 49,
equal two pounds per head; whereas, the quanSy
that should be used cannot be limited 10 S"' VI
twenty, pounds per head. Such bang tne case' .ne
difficulty, it is clear, does not lie N sne go cpnd
auction but in the deficiency Of consumption; Couia
the cause Of this deficiency be discoVereu, anu
remedy be applied the planter might go on increasing
his quantity from year to yeai-the p''ce Vi m s1I;nc
nreci,ey as we see be the with rags and paper
eoooops and silks sheeps wool and otn ta1 ana hnen-
The larger the price Of corn the greater NUT oc Io
power Of the farmer 10 purchase CLOTH ana tle greater
he quantity of money obtainab.e by the planter 10
Sst1rn for any given quantity OF cotton me tend
epcy Of American policy, however IS to"srd reouc'hg
the price of corn throughout the world; and as
a necessary consequence, toward destroying the
power of the people Of France aud Germany, Rus
sia and Austria, England aud Ireland, 70 purchase
cloth. That such is the will be obvious
TO YOU Mr.. President when you shall have reflected,
for a moment upon the effect that - obviously
produced by increase III our export and upon that
which would be produced, were it possible at once to
say that food would go from America 70 asy
country OF the wOrld--we having followed the advice
Of Adam Smith, when he advised that tuns OF 1000
should be combined with wool ~ - to enable oOth 70
travel cheapiy 10 distant lands sven measure "ouio
1t once relieve the European market from me pressure
by which IL il now kept down. ana the price OF I'm
glish and Irish food would rapidly advance-af0rdng
induce to the estensiOn Of cultivation, ana max
me- demand for labor, with large increase OF wager,
and consequent Increase IN the power 10 Puicha~'
cloth. German food and German land would rise,
and 30 would those OF France and Russia, Austria and
Spain. Agriculture thus receiving new npetrs,
agricultural labor would rise in pricerepdering indis
ptnsable increase in the wages OF factory laber
What is needed throughout the world is rapidlty OF
circulation, making demand for labor aud Its products
Capitalization is opposed 10 thls-froducng stagra-
lion everywhere, and compelling the plan 0t the
world 10 give constantly increasing quaint " IL ter
eommodtes-sugsr and cOtton-i0r COZ &c. o.
minishing quantity of money. Nearly al Il G. fi3
Of Europe have followed in the lead OF Frucc,r lie
effort TO produce decentralization the etie q 1t 5 a.
the rise that has there taken place IL tho pfC-J @.
Of food and wool.
Such would be the effect among ourselves u the
sdopton OF the policy that there has bees procilhSe
of such results. The measures required for making
domestic market for foOd-thus relieving the t4Dn~rs
of Europe from American cOmpetOn--W0Cd pro-
duce rapid circulation of labor and commodities and
the American farmer would soon obtain much for ms
corn az is paid in France England The rise "a the
price Of agricultural labor would be followed by rise
N that which was otherwise employed. Labor be-
coming from day to day more productive, ut the close
Of few brief years the domestic consumption of cot
ton would be thrice a. great IA now with correspond
ing dupiDutOn in the quantity pressing On the market
Of Europe-enabng the planter 10 obtain for large
crops higher price per pound than be now receives
for small ones.
Adam Smith denounced the British system of his
cheapeniDg all the materials Of manufacture
labor and the products Of the land. The system of
the present day looks to the production of The same
results; and therefore il it that, in accordance with
The ideas Of DIR. Smith, il has been resisted by all the
civilized nations of the world-America alone
eeped In all of them, consequently, raw produce is
rising in pdce, while here alone, Is roGnd o.~a@ad
community, in which the produce OF the lafa mas
steadily during half century, declined IN pnce-tne
farming and planting interests having oeen most con
sistent in the pursuit of policy tending TO dmhnlsh
the quantity of money be received IN exchange ior
Q bale of cotton, or barrel of Hour
The evidences of growing civilization, Mr.. Presi-
dent are to be sought in two directions; hrSt IN te
rise 10 the prices of the raw products OF the eaTh
and second in the decline of those of the manuiac-
tured commodities required for human purposes. 50
far as regards the first, that evidence mas mol peen
here obtaned-both -four and cotton having steadily
fallen in price, to the great disadvantage OF those by
whom they are produced. The manufactured com
modify that, more than any other IL required ny the
farmer and the planter, is lKoS, and we may now
turn 70 IT, with a view TO ascertain II we can hnd IN
that direction, the evidence of growing eivhINion
with which, thus far, We have failed to meet Dong
NO, we ascertain that, in 1921 and lS22, the average
price Of bars q: Glasgow was tlO u.s., or $oi 30,
fun at which rate the 100 O0OUO0 Of pounds OF cotton
then shipped would have paid for at that port about
$50 600 tuns-eavipg $500 600 to deiray the inland
expenses OF sending the cotton Ia the port o shipment
Turning now to the four years ending IN 1919, we ind
that the average price of bars has been SIS ~ per
tun, and that the quantity OF cotton that mas peen
shipped has averaged O5O, UOO OOO pounds producing
at the port of shipment an average OF S9i,oW,OOO-
dedncting from which the inland expenses, the plant
ers might have received, probably 100, with
which they cOuld have purchased about 2,lOO,OOO
tune--thus giving ten pounds for smaller quantity
Of iron than, before, they could have had for tive.
The price of -four prior to the opening ofthe Crimean
war was lower as Mr.. President you have seen, thant
had been for halt century; and less, by nearly one
half than ithad been III the period from 1919 TO 49,
In that period the price OF bar iron IN Liverpool aver
aged about 60 or but little more than that OF the
mast four years the fluctuations in these latter having
been between II los. and Go Us. Cd. The raw ma
terials Of labor-food and cotton-not only do not
approximate toward iron, but become more widely
separated from year TO year
Still more strongly is this the case when we compare
the prices OF food and cotton with those OF other
metals. The raw materials iron and lead, have fallen
vsnced, as will be seen by the following figures, de-
rived from the work of Mr. Tooke, before referred to-
1882 to 1891 1929 to 1888.
SSsypet.'';psI s swt. 3. ss.........::..:1
Lead. per ysi ewt 10 o....... Is 90
Turning next TO the year 1852, at which time flour
had fallen 10 little than third of the price at
which il sold in the period from 1910 10 1872 We find
that the average prices had still further advanced
copper having been "a 49,, Tin "a 1s and lead El7
The whole value Of these metals il nthe labor given
TO their extraction That labor the product of food
and cothing-Of corn and wool. The foreign raw ma
terias Of which British labor is composed are per
petusny falling in price, while highly important COM
nodities, received by the foreign producers IN eX
change, regularly rise; and that being the direct
road toward Capitalization, barbarism, and Slavery
We may now readily understand the causes of the
istence Of the extraordinary Generalization now in
progress among ourselves The road 10 freedom and
civilization hes in direction precisely the opposite OF
that which, thus far has been pursued That road H.
nnder the lead of France, being travelled by all the ad
vancing nations Of Europe, and hence the improve
ment that becomes from day to day more manifest IN
the growing harmony of all the various interests Of
which society rs composed. The contrary road is,