The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1859-03-24
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From the New York rhbano, March III
We doubt whether any other country exhibits a larger
amount OF proportion of useless talent, OF instructed
energy, than ours. Our clever young men, IN fearful super
abundance, addict themselves TO law, to physlc, To com
merce, mainly because these seem the only pursuits
which promise wealth and distinction. Hazardous as
merchandising Is known 10 be, long and tolIsome as Is
the path to emineDce and fortune at the bar or IN mcdi
cine, these seem to most Of our aspiring youth the only
unofficial avenues to lame and fortune hence they are
uniformly ruinously crowded. There has been no day OF
the last forty years In wi ich there were not four times as
many trying TO live by trade In this country as were need
cd In that oceupation-twice as many as could possibly
succeed. Hence the fatal expansion and looseness OF
mercantile credit hence the failure OF at least nine
tenths of all who engage in traffic. To fail Is as natural
an end to q mercantile career In this country as TO be
killed Is to the soldier enlisted for life. Ii a man opens a
store, the ready inquiry is, GLOW long will he Inst p
and he who escapes bankruptcy for 30 long rs ten years.
does well-better than the average. We could name
country villages which have had their fifteen or twenty
mercantile firms in the course of the last thirty years and
broken them all within two or three and of these not
one has retired with q competence.
One is trading yet, and solvent two, perhaps, have
retired or removed, losers, but not broken the rest have
gone the way of all American traders, or SO nearly all
that the exceptions help TO prove the rule. OF the young
men who will this year embark in trade, it is safe to say
that three-fourths will want u national bankrupt law
within the next ten years, and another eighth within
twenty. But they cannot break SO fast that Others will
not scramble for their places. Thousands of new con
Germs will be opened this year, to be closed as thousands
were in 1878. 1t were idle to demonstrate against
this tendency the thing to be done Is to countervail II.
OF the need of good farmers among us we have FREE
quentiy spoken. We Will let no one quarrel with us as
to what constitutes a good farmer, since we concede that
every tiller of the soil who grows large average crops
pretty uniformly, makes his farm richer each year, and
realizes a profit thereirom, is of the right sort, though he
has no knowledge of and no faith in science, never Jaw a
drain tile, and believes the education which sufhces for
an OK good enough for a farmer. That there il II deplo-
rable deficiency of good farmers, even of this sort, Is
shown by the fact that the average yield Of our farms is
diminishing, that of wheat being hardly hall 30 much as
1t was fifty years ago; while in England and Scotland it
has nearly doubled during the came period. Attribute
this falling off to whatever insect or other mischief you
may, we are sure that bad culture the exhaustion from
the soil of certain elements essential to wheat lis the real
and principal cause. That the nudge has destroyed the
growing wheat on thousands of acres of virgin soil docs
not shake our conviction that, had wheat been grown but
once in four years throughout our country, with a proper
| treatment Of soil and rotation OF crops intermediately, we
should have suffered comparatively little by rust, or
blight, or insects.
The Hessian fly came to us las is supposed from Eu-
rope but compared with this country, Europe suffers
| very little from this and all other destroyers. Man was
not made to be baiaed and defeated by a worm but IL
the worm is allowed to have the field to himself, the man
has no right to complain, We hold that II half our ca
pable, clear-seeing, ambitious young men were to devote
to agriculture the energy, enterprise, and knowledge that
they now give to trade and the professions, they would
greatly bless those left in stores or offices, render our
farming generally more efficient and successful than 1t
now Is, and add millions to the annual product and ag-
gregate wealth of the country.
But, beyond this, there opens q vast, inviting field for
talent and enterprise in manufactures, to which we would
invite the attention of our young men.
This country has become the largest market on earth
for fabrics, in proportion to its population 1t is rapidly
increasing in population and consumption. Whoever
among us knows how to make almost anything well and
cheaply need not look abroad for q market. We buy
more ~broadcloth annually than any other nation, yet we
do not make one yard in q hundred of 1t while We
make cassimeres, de LANES, prints, drills, hannels. coun-
terpanes, and many other fabrics, SO cheaply as to defy
oreign competition.
anything can be simpler than its manufacture yet we
porting none Il on own production. In short, there are
scores Of opportunities on every side for embarking in
manufactures with a moral certainty of imm d ate sue
cess and u innate wealth.
Nor do we need capital, as is often asserted. There is
capital enough in this country, and readiness to invest
if its owners can but be sure that it will be wisely en-
ployed. Our greatest deficiency is in practical knowl-
edge. Were ten thousand of our young men thoroughly
qualified to direct and manage manufactures, there would
be room for them all. Mills and improved water powers
sell at ruinous rates, in good part because there are few
or none qualified by trainin : and experience to make the
most of them. Had one fourth of our youth who have
been sent to college during the last ten years been sent
instead to the best manufactures Of the Old World, there
to study and master the most approved method. of spin
ming, weaving, dyeing, &c, our national wealth would
have been far greater than it is, and our labor more gem
eral. v employed and more literally remuneratcd. May
we not hope that the immediate future will correct the
error of the past