St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-04-29
HOME MANUFACTURES.

hot manufacture their own boots,
shoes, cotton and woolen goods. hard
ware, and all other articles made in
tins country as well as import them
from Massachusetts or New York
These two States have been able to
transport their food from our prairies,
and the raw materials for manufac-
turc from different parts of the coun-
try, and have not only supported
themselves, but have added vastly to
their aggregate wealth. They have
taken these materials and worked
them over, and made them into salea-
bic merchandise, and sent them to us,
and we have paid for them. We have
paid those prices that have enabled
the people of Massachusetts to get
rich, after paying the cost of trans
portation of our grain to them on
which they have lived, and also the
freight on the goods which they have
lived, and alse the freight on the goods
which they send back. All this cost
of transportation comes out of the
Western producer. Let us take the
articles of boots and shoes. First a
large tanner sends to this region and
buys up all the green hides that can
be found. They are worth less here
than at the East, because of the cost
of transportation. So the first owner
OF the hides cannot get SO much for
them by this cost Of shipment as he
could if they were tanned and made
into shoes close by.
Then the people of the East who
tan the hides and make up the leath-
er must have bread and meat to live
on, which also are sent from the West,
and which are consequently, by rea-
son of this same cost of transporta-
ton, from 80 to so per cent. higher
than they are with us. Thus, while
they are at work on these hides, in
their raw or dressed state, their cx-
pense of support is higher than if they
dwelt here among us After they are
made up into boots and shoes, they
are sent back to us, and we buy them
and pay for them at prices so that the
capitalist makes his per ccntagc, the
eastern laborer his wages, the rail-
road its freight, and the multitude of
middle men their profits, and it all
comes out Of the Western producer.
1t amounts to the same thing as
though a capitalist here should buy
up his green hides throughout the
West, and send them 1000 miles East
to be converted into shoes, and at the
same time send the provisions for the
laborers to live on while they were at
work upon them in their various sta
ges, and after the shoes were made to
bring them back here to be sold
Now, can anything be more shit,tless
aud thrittlcss than snch management
Why may we not have the people here
among us To tan our leather and make
our shoes! Then we need not sell
flour for half OF two-thirds of what
the shocmakcrs at the East pay for it.
All this cost comes out of the first
producer. The manufacturers of course
make their wages at the East or they
quit the business, but the cost of the
made goods are double to western
farmers what they would be if the
factories were near home.
What is true in regard to boots and
shoes, is equally true in regard to
most other manufactures. What
sense or propriety is there in sending
the lead to the East, which, after it
has been made over into paint, lead
pipe, or sheets, must be sent back
here. The consumer here must pay
the first cost Of the lead, which the
miner receives, and also the cost of
the manufacture, to which the expense
of the shipping should be added.
In respect to the manufacture of
cotton, why may it not be made into
cloth on the upper Mississippi as well
as at Lowell or Pawtucket? What
ped to Boston and thence sent to the
factory instead of sending it directly
up the river where the cloth will be
needed after it is made, and where
the laboring people can get their pro-
visions for little more than half what
it costs at the East? If there is any
thing which the political economists
have demonstrated, it is that the pro-
ducer and consumer should be brought
as near together as possible, and that
the middle men, those who live by
transporting their wares and mate
rials back and forth, are dead weight
on the producing and manufacturing
classes. Bring the two together and
the middle men can be dispensed with
1t needs but little argument to
show that if the farming population
of the West would receive for their
produce what it is worth to the con-
summer, they must have manufac-
turing population nearer home. OF
course it takes time to build up large
manufacturing interests. The West
has been filling up with an agricultu-
raj people, till now it is rich enough
to engage in manufacturing, that will
not compel our people to send their
produce thousands of miles to market,
and then take for it what the people
of the East are pleased to give them.
Every one can see that an enlightened
policy requires Of the West that her
industry should be diversified that
one class should produce what anoth-
er consumes, and there can be no
doubt that in few years such will
actually be the case. The Mississippi
Valley has resources within its bor-
ders to support population as large
as all Europe, and it will be passing
strange if dozen years hence tie
people here are as dependant on other
parts of the Union and the world as
they are now. Let there once be a
general movement in the West to-
wards manufacturing, and the popu-
lation would almost Immediately
double, and the aggregate wealth of
the country wonld be simultaneously
quadrupled.-Gaieaa Adrertiser.