New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-02-26
DOES THE SOUTH GROW RICH,

DgES 6sSO"
The people Of the Cotton States have habtuai.
ly plumed themselves on their superior wealth,
giving to cotton alone the credit of making them
rich. Their orators, editors, hnanciers, and othsr
philosophers, have so necessarily held up cottoa
as the great object for worship, because il
brings cash in foreign market, this cash being
declared TO be all profit, that not only the South
ern people believe in these Palaces, but poe.
ton of the North has accepted the mOnstrous alb
surdity as strictly true. The man who continual
" repeats the same fasehood soon ceases to re-
gard it as such. In the same manner this cotton
lie has been told so often that those with whom
it originated now believe i to be the truth.
Even the North has been measurably inoculated
with the same delusiOn. But test il BY the I'M
answerable logic of facts and figures, and the
broad allegation that the South has been growing
rich by cotton, or, in fact, in any other way.
will BIO found of very questionable accuracy.
No institution requires so vast capital TO es-
tablish and keep in operation as Human Slavery.
The Cotton States contain some 9, 800, coo slaves,
costing the owners $40 annually for the food,
clothing, and medical attendance Of each. This
charge amounts to sos, 600, 900 per annum. The
value Of the machinery of agriculture in these
States-such as gins, presses, wagons, horses,
plows, &c.-is $4,000, 0O0 requiring an annual
cash outlay of $4,000, geo to renew and keep'in
order. 1t costs 50 per bale for packing and de-
liyering cotton at the seaports, averaging those
remote with those near at hand, and on crop
Of OOO. 600 bales this charge amounts 70
goo, 900 600. 1t is known that cotton lands and
negroes are rarely bought for cash, the usual
terms of purchase being one-fourth down, with
interest for the remainder. What sum this tax
for interest may amount 10 can only be coDJsc-
tured but it must be very large-S2O, Oo0Vo
per annum would be a moderate estimate.
There are additional charges not necessary !"
recite, which careful examiners into the question
| of what it costs to raise and deliver cotton IA
market, estimate at figure which brings mo
cost per bale up to $2i. Others make it more,
others less, but this may be assumed as the re-
liable average cost Now, the crop of last year
ia held to be 100000 bales which, at $50
each, produces the gross sum of 500 ,Wo, OO0.
But ia cost, at S24, was 800, 900, 900. leaving
, surp,us of Sl0i, 900, coo, or less than 1915 to
each Of the lsl, 1sS Shareholders in tho Cotton
1
States as his clear profit. 1t wih 30 cauiea'
that the charge of $40 as the annual cost 81
keeping a slave is an improper ore, eecsa'e mo
slaves produce their own food. But vais 10 BY
no means certain. They certainly d., not pro-
duce their own clothing and medicias. which two
items must constitute third of the, whole, losy'
| ing say $I7 100000 more 10 DO added TO ths
total surplus of Sl0A 0OQ OC0 which will increase
the profit for each owner to Ss8J.
The result of this analysis is most extraordin'
ary. II scatters TO the wind the prevalent iniat'
uation that the South is growing rich BY raisips
cotton, and proves that if she is annually oec0n'
ing poorer, it mus. be ifqsn the inherent unpr0i'
itableness of her vast slayeholding machinery
and not because the North is growing rich az het
expense. Her deaeg.ion is the consequence "
her own folly, voluntarily continued in the lace
of evidence which most other communities te0vs'
nice as uuaaswe rablc. The test Of wealth |" 'a'