New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-02-13

land Ills corn occupies tbe after bot par. Of the
year, while the necessity for reDovsting The soil BY
means OF iaDows causee large portion Of his farm 70
altoc then Idle, although the cot Of main.D-
ing roads ard fences Is precisely The same as il every
8cre were fully occupied.
HE time too, being required only for certain por-
tons of the year, much Of it is altogether lostas u
that of his wagon and bor-ee-the oonsunlrI.pn OF
which latter ~ just as great AZ they always at
work He and they are in the condition Of stean,-en-
gines constantly fed with fuel while the engineer as
regularly wastes the steam that is produc ed pro-
ceeding involving heavy loss Of capital Further stop
pages OF employ ment, both for his land and for him.
self, resulting from changes the weather. are
queni upon this limitation the variety OF things that
may be cultivated. III. crop, perhaps, requires rain
that does not come, and his cotton perishes
a drOuth. Once grown, requires hight and heat but
in their plnce come clouds and rain; aud and he
nearly ruined. The farmer near London ~ Pars in
The condition of an nnderwrtcr who bGs a thoussn
nsks some Of which are maturing every dAy; where.
as the distant one is in that Of a nsn who has rsket
hs whole fortune on single ship. Having made the
voyage, she arr at the entrance of her destined port
When, ,trkhg on rock she - lost and her osber 10
ruined. Precisely such is the condition OF the farmer
who, having his all at risk on his single crop sees II
destroyed by blight mdew, almost at the moment
when he had expected 10 make his harvest. WIN so
lated men all pursuits are extra Du. as
they enabled TO approach each other and combine
their efforts the rlsks diminish until they almost alto
cether disappear Combination Of action thus makes
of society general insurance office by help OF winch
each and all of IFS members are enabled 70 SECURE
themselves against almost every imaginable risk.
Great however Mr.. President, as are these diner,
ences they sink almost into nsignihcanoe compared
with that which exists in reference to the
of the powers Of the land. The farmer distant from
ma ket is always selling the soil, which constitutes Dis
capital whereas the one near London not ony re-
tnIps 10 his land the refuse of s products, but adds
thereto the resulting ffom the consumption Oh
the vast amount of wheat brought from Russia and
America Of cotton brought from Carolina and India;
Of commodities
by the tropics Of lumber and of WOOL the products
of Canada and Australia not only maintaining the
powers of his land, but increasing them from year to
year.
The more perfect the power of combination the
greater IL the yield Of the land; the higher the
prices of the rude products of the soil the smaller s
the bulk Of the commodities to be transpO ted, and
the larger are the proportions borne by their value 10
the machinery required for their transportation That
Mr.. President the road toward civilization; but 1t
also the very opposite of the road that ourselves
are travelDg-the quantity of machinery required for
the work of transportation increasing with rapdity
far greater than that which make the growth of val
uos. This latter being the certain road toward bar
barsm we need look but little further for the causes
OF the decline in morals, wealth, and power, now 80
rapidly in progress throughout the Union.
The power to command the Of improved ma
chinery grows with the growth in value OF the things
requiring be transported; the farmer whose prox-
unity the mill enables him to send his grain to mar
ket in the form Of -four being far more able TO con-
tribute TO the Improvement Of roads than his fellow
farmer who is forced TO send 1t in that OF wheat IL
dminshes as the things 10 be transported decline III
value and hence the weakness Of countries like Portu.
gal Turkey and India that are becoming more and
more dependent distant markets. II dminlshes with
us and hence that dependence on foreign coun-
tres for efficient means OF transportation, 30
rapidly increases.
More than twenty years have now elapsed since the
arrival of the Great Western steamer and the estaD
hsbment of the fact that could avail ourselves OF
the power of steam for the passage of the broad At
sntic. For nearly all that time we have been strug.
Cling to obtain steam communication, by means OF
American ships, with Europe-the Government and
ing in the effort TO the extent OF many millions what
however, has been the result of all our efforts Ship
after ship has been lost, until confidence IN American
steamers has almost disappeared and with II the lines
of steamers. The Collins line, as 1t still called, now
dispatches a single ship per month, and that, too,
chiefly owned in Europe. The Havre line dispatches
monthly ship. The Bremen line has wholly disap..
peared. Mr. Vanderbilt has yet three ships engaget
in the European trade but the recent accident 70 one
of them can scarcely fail to be felt nurously by all
snnihstng the little confidence that previously had
existed The day is fast approaching, Mr.. President,
when no single steamer carrying the Amerlcan nag
and the very few private ones engaged in the coast
ing trade which foreign competition ID wholly inter-
dcted. Such being the facts and such the prospects,
is it probable that We shall long MAINTAIN that supe-
ority on the which certainly existed al the
time when the General Government entered upon the
career of Capitalization II would seem not. Beaten
in agriculture and beaten in manufactures, we ar
likely TO be yet more Thoroughly dlstanced IN re
gard 10 ships and for the reason that our pohcy tend
steadily toward lessenng the value of the commodities
seeking to be transported.
The French pohcy--ooking, as il does to the eman-
cpatOn of land and labor from the tax OF transPorta
tiOn-s directly the revere of ours. We tax our
selves for the maintenance OF millions of tuns of ship
ping required for the transport OF merchandise TO Dc
given TO France, in exchange for millions upon mil.
lions OF tuns of food and other commodities so reduced
in bulk that their weight IN tuns Is counted by thou
sands Freed, by that reduction from all the cost o.
tdto France is enabled to invoke the aid OF
steam and TO such extent, too that the arrivals OF her
own steamers, in her own ports, amounted IN lo'o,
to no less than COO tuns per week, aud more than
four hundred thousand in the year.
France, Mr.. President, is carrying out your own
most excellent views in regard TO commercial policy
lavng a broad foundation of domestic commerce. "a
means of obtaining the largest power OF intercourse
with the outer world. We, on the contrary, are de,
stroying the domestic commerce, in the vain hope OF
thereby building up great foreign one. Why have
We no steamers running TO Rio, to Buenos Ayres, to
Montevideo, TO Valparaiso, to Lama, or Australia
Because We have little to sell except those rude pro-
ducts of the earth which the people OF Brazil or
Chill do not need TO buy. Before they can do 80,
those commodities must pass through the looms OF
Manchester and Lyons, and hence 1t Is that nearly al
our intercourse with the world is burdened with costs
Of transport atom enormous that our farmers are
generally poor although themselves the owners OF the
land. In search Of trade, We fit out expeditions
against Japan--inyolve ourselves in disputes with
Paraguay and Buenos Ayres-eXpore African ana
South American rivers-and maintain enormous
diplomatic establishment throughout this continent,
and yet have scarcely anything 10 SELL except to the
people of France and England.
What need, Mr.. President is that real free trade
which consists in mant aiming direct intercourse with
the world at large but that cannot have so long
as shah continue 10 export our commodities in their
rudest state. The farmer who has but mill at
which to grind bis grain, has no freedom OF trade
The miller and the baker have it. they being free to
se to whom they please. Our farmers and planters
have none OF it, being compelled to send their pro-