Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1859-08-18
TIE Trouble Tho Remedy.

The Trouble -IEo Remedy.
IEThe indifference Of The business
world 10 the most startling lessons Of the
immediate past is at once strange and
alarming. The great financial crisis has
swept over The country without leaving us
4 whit wiser than it found us. Its impress
rive inculca,iuns have been thrown away
on the merchant as well as the statesman.
The lessons Of ovcrirading, says an inteili- |
gent contemporary, taught by the calami-
tons events Of 1857, seems 10 have been
forgotten. During ihe FIRST seven months
of his year, tie imports VI foreign dry
goods ct he por, Of New York were larger |
BY five millions than those OF the first seven
months of The fatal year, 1851 which were
the heavies, known. This, loo, in the face
OF the fact that the exports Of everything
but specie are small; that there is no Euro
pepn demand for cur breadstulIs, and that
prices for these and all other American pro-
ducs' are lanentaby loy. Il is only by
heavy shipments Of gold and silver-thei
life blood Of commerce, trade and business
heaith-that we are enabled TO meet our OBJ.
legations 10 Europsan merchants, nanuiac-
turers, and capitalists. Many obligations
are not even met by these, for there are de-
faulting railroad companies and other. cor
porations, that owe many millions abroad, 4
Blu; are utterly unable 10 psy,. So the spe-
Gle shipments, enormous as they are, are
somewhat kept down by sacrificing The ma.
tional charncter for honesty.
At moment when, after an abundant
harvest. it was expected there would be
srise in brQadstufs, owing TO the war in Eu
rope, that would enable us 10 pay some OF
our foreign debt, the war is suddenly bro't
10 close. BreadstuETs 60 down, aud the
hopes of the farmer who owes the Western
merchant, the Western merchant who owes
tine Eastern merchant. the Eeastern mer-
chant who owes the Foreigner, and the
rail road companies who owe every body,
60 down with them. The hopes created by
the war and the grea, crops prove lallacious.
1t will scarcely pay 10 send wheat, flour
and corn TO the East, much less 10 send ii
abroad. Sill, with all This miserable pre-
sent condition and still more miserable pros
peel, our merchants ga on ordering g0ods
from Europe, and men and women all over
the Union 90 on buying Them or running in
debt for them. Our only hope is that our
gold mines will yield enough TO enable us
to pay sufficient 10 keep us frVm actual
bankruptcy.
We were in much such condition as
this in August, 1857, when the Banks be-
gan 10 contract. though our imports were
smaller, our foreign debt less, and our spe-
Gle exports less. Our banks are contracting
now. and if The panic makers are allowed
to carry public feeling along with them, we
nav be hurried into scenes Of distress SINH
laI 10 those Of September, 1857. But 10
be forewarned is 10 be forearmed and as
the panic of 1857 would not have happen
ed but that the public mind was "demoraI-
izsd" precisely as the Austrian army was,
so there will not be panic this season, if
there is no decentralization. The hope of
the business world this year, which is 10
sustain il and prevent "a panic, is in the
next Congress. This Congress will con-
sst, in great part, Of new men, and of men
not bound 10 the fatal free-trade policy Of
the Administration at Washington, which
has worked ruinous.y both ways, by dis
couraging hame manufactures and inviting
foreign imporaiiOns. So long as the pres
ent low rates Of duties on foreign goods are
maintained, we shall import excessively,
and shall be every year adding 10 our debt.
Our hope in the next Congress is, then,
not, as some propose, in a general bank
rupt law; for we have not forgotten the
baleful effects OF the last one; but in a revi-
sion of the tariff and al increase of duties
on all the productions tha; enter most large
ly into our foreign trade, particularly on
those in the production of which such i'm
msnse amounts OF American capital and
labor have been invested. Iron, cotton,
and woiien manufactures are in especial
need Of greater protection. Could we check
the introduction Of these from abroad the
country would really be saved fran the
constantly recurring panics, depressions ap-
preaching 70 paH;c>, which make commerce
manufactures, agriculture, and ell branches
of industry SO precarious and hucGating.-
If the last Congress had regarded The real
interests Of the country and raised the du-
ties, in accordances with the wishes Of the
people, we should have beer infinitely bet
Ter of than we now are.
The time FOR argument On The relative
merits of free trade and protection is gone
by. We have tried both. Under the pro-
iective tariff of 1912 I'VE pros pered Under
the lgpw tariff Of 1916 we declined in pros
peritv, and under the still lower tariff of
1857 we have been nearly ruined. The
only hope, now, is in change OF policy, an
increase Of daIies on all classes Of manu-
features in which American producers can
come in competition with foreign. 1t should
be the endeayor, therefore, of every con
stitaegey 10 impress upon the member rep
seniing them Bext winter at Washington
that The thing needed first of all and more
than al is an increase of The duties. Let
Prcsident-making, political iobblng, and ev
ery-ihing else stand aside until The tariff is
adjusted. II the people could be assured
that this was the dissemination of the Con-
giess, their alarm would be abated, and
there would be no panic this year nor the
next Journal.