Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-08-31
Food---Prices nnd nemnnd.

Inc W est Is gOfgeu WIN lOOu, anu yet pines
for the means of life She has just reaped a
most magnificent harvest, and vet is without a
spare dollar in her pocket. There is no end to
her produce; nor any end apparently to her des
titution She is in want of the very first Of all
civilized necessities We don't mean bread,
for the savage also needs that, but a market
She knows not ,here TO send her wheat. Eu-
rope has enough of her own The Middle
| States have as much as they care for. Cold
Me- England which cannot grow it, will re.
qure some, and so will the hot South; but
nothing like tha quantity the West would be
| glad to dispose of There is no demand cor
espondiug to the supply, neither will there be
/ we fancy, in time to come, except in occasional
years, when extraordinary causes operete
abroad, like war or signally bad weather. In
ordinary years the quantity OF wheat Europe
will want from the West will be but mere
handful to what the West is able to furnish -
J The demand abroad, since the ports of Great
1 Britain were thrown open to its free admission,
/ has not iucreas d in anything like the ratio OF
the increase of supply, nor will it in the fu-
ture.
What then has the West to do First, she
must make up her mind to sell for lower prices,
and do what she can in this way to enlarge her
market both at home and abroad. Wheat is no
exception to the general rule that cheapness
inevitably increases. And the price OF wheat
must continue to fall, for the West is every
| year enlarging her limits, bringing new land un-
/ der cultivation, and furnishing new sup lies
| II is idle for Ohio and Illinois to hope to keep
up wheat TO the old standard as it was forty
years ago, as for South Carolina and Georgia TO
| look for a continuance of the old rates for cot
| ton when the States beyond were filling up
with cotton planters. Moreover, there are
other causes, besides the extending area of
cultivation, at work to lower the price of wheat
particularly tto almost universal use into
which roapipg machines and threshing ma
chimes ard al the improved agricultural impe
ments of the day are rapidly coming into use in
tue great agricultural region of the Northwest
! One of these machines can do the work OF ten
| or fifteen men, and they are completely reVOlu
tiOnizing the old order things when labor was
the chief elemenS in the cost of production -
| The steam pOw, which has been recently
brought to great perfection, will soon, there is
every reason TO believe, be introduced into the
western prairies, and will prove another most
powerful auxiliary in saving labor and cheap
ening production. The West then must recon-
cile herself to the necessity of low prices for her
great commercial staple, and not only for Oh
| year but for all ordinary years hereafter.
Yet there is 4 mode of putting a limit to this
downward tendency Of gain, and but one; and
that is by charging and strengthening the home
mlrket. The loom and the anvil must be recog-
nZed as the natural allies of the plough and
the harrow. The mechanic arts and manulac.
lures open new spheres of employment and
| gather masses of population who have need of
| the products of the farmer, and, through their
own productive industry are able to pay good
prices for the same. A foreign market not
| only involves the loss consequent upon distant
L.,
and yely variable, for there is not nation III
Elrope which does not make it point to raise
It's own breadstuils from its own soil The
West in this respect is very differently situated
| from the South. The latter has virtually a
monopoly in her great staple; and other nations
have no home growth with which to make
| themselves independent of her. 1t is of com
paratlvely little consequence-though we thiuk
| of more consequence than she imagines.-
whether she has a home market or not; for she
s sure of foreign market. The West has no
| such assurance. The custom Europe accords
to her is at best but contracted and precarious
A home market is her only substantial depen>
dence.
The time is not far distant when she will re-
alize this as she has never yet done. The great
body of her Representatives and Senators have
hitherto acted in opposition TO all measures cal
cuatcd TO protect and foster the arts and manu-
features of their own section and the country
at large. They have been accustomed 10 rsgard
free trade in wheat the sHmmHn bonun of
their industrial life, and have believed that the
barometer of their prosperity and adversely
hung nowhere but in Mark Lane Hard e1-
periencc Is, we trust, gradually curing the
West Of this great mistake. She is learning
the lesson that without the advantage of a large
mechanical and manufacturing population in
her own midst, OF at least near at hand, as con
sumers, the demand for her products must be
small IN proportion to her supply, and that she
is constantly drained of her gold by paving for
manufactured goods which she must have and
yet can pay for in no other way. She is fast
finding that she will thrive best in and with
tho thrift Of her own hth and kin.