The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1861-10-26
miscellaneous.
Money and Brains.

deficiency Of Capital in this country
and elsewhere, yet nothing could be
more wide of the truth. There can be
no such thing as surplus Labor, though
it is possible to crowd too many people
within limited area as, for instance.
into city whose trade is temporarily if
not generally insufficient to support
them. If the population of this country
were double, treble, quadruple, tenfold
its present aggregate, it might be worse
for the poor, because of the increased
price Of land, but not because ofany
natural and necessary dcarth of employ
inent resulting from increased density of
population. For every thousand added
to the population of a State Or country
involves increase Of consumption as we'll
as Of production; implies eaters and
wearers as well as growers and makers.
The child born to-day is necessarily a
consumer before it becomes a producer
of wealth; so usually is the freshly
landed immigrant. A large and rapid
influx of population involves largely
increased requirement not only of food
and clothes but of houses, implements,
fuel and arabic soil. And in fact
Employment is almost uniformly more
deficient In community whose popula-
ton is stationary or diminishing than in
one whose inhabitants arc rapidly increas-
ing.
The common notion that mere Capital
that is, larger proportion of Wealth
to Population-Is the true and necessary
basis of Moderation in the employment
and recompense Of Labor, though it is
propunded as an axiom by many writers
On Political Economy, is at best inaccu-
rate A sudden and large increase of
wealth in community mug improve the
condition of its Laboring Poor, but does
not necessarily secure that result. 1t
may increase the cost of living more than
the wages Of Labor, and thus prove a
positive bane to the greater number
Undoubtedly, the immigration of a thou
sand unattended millionaires into this
country would give employment to
considerable number of builders, fur
nishers. gardeners, domestic servants,
&c, &c, but if they were only million
aires-that is, if they were simply rich
people who came hither to spend their
money and enjoy life-thsr immigration
would be 4 questionable benefit to the
country and its Laboring Class.
For the real need of this as of most
countries is not so mnch Money as Brains,
that is, the capacity united with the
disposition TO organize and give efficiency
to Labor, thus utilizing productive
capacity and ,benelically creating wealth.
Eli Whitney. by his invention of the
Cotton Gin, added more to the wealth of
our Planting States than all the rich men
who ever settled within their limits
Fitch and Fulton, by making steam nav.
iga'ion practicable, have added more to
the real wealth of this country than all
the capitalists who ever settled in it,
Watt, Arkwright, and their British
conpecrs in invention, who, by their
steam-engine, spinning jenny, &c, made
England the worlds workshop through
her temporarily unrivaled chcapness Of
production, were the real conquerors of
Napoleon, though the glory was ascribed
to Nelson and Wellington.
In every community, there is tluctua-
ting residuum of unemployed Labor
that is, of unused capacity for the pro-
ducton of wealth and he is public
benefactor who devises and calls into
activity the means whereby this residuum
is sensibly reduced. If, for example,
one should appear who would show us
how to make the inmates of each aims
house earn their own subsistence, inclu-
ding the rent of the premises occupied
and cultivated by them, he would be
everywhere hailed as social deliverer.
Yet this has been done in special
localities and for term of years; what
we need is the genius able to render the
achievement universal and unfailing.-
And if one should come forward and Offer
guarantees that he would, if the felt
were conceded to him, give food, shelter
and clothing to all who we're able anc
willing to give him, however transicntly
labor in return, he would deserve ant
receive the warmcst acclamations, be
cause he would save millions of dollar.
now squandered in we'll meant but unde
served alms-giving, while he woul,
rescue crowds from that career of idle
and useless mendicity which, though
perhaps began in absolute need, is ap
to be prolonged from sheer laziness ant
moral degradation, and thus to end il
depravity and, crime.
Yes, the great want of the age is no
Money but Brains-the genius requisite
to blend Labor with Capital, keep bott
fully employed, and render each in thu
highest degree effective and beneGcent
There never is, nor was, nor will be, an,
lack of Capital tor any investment whicl
is generally recognized as at once SAT
and profitable. Yet Capital and Labo
often rest and rust, to the detriment Q
e both and of all, for want of Brains t.
Z combine and set them in motion. If, 70
example, any one had known enough las
Spring TO hire dozen idle old woole
$ factories, rc6t them, and set them t
i making substantial Blue Cloth and Blan
e kets, he might have made half doze
fortunes ere this, while employing a larg
amount of Labor that has stood unwil
lingly idle, and giving cur wool-grower
g quick market and fair price for thei
. staple, which many have meantime sol
Q for less than three-fourths Of its presen
d cash value. And so in many othe