Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-12-28
one q 9 e Essss s.s e.:. l.

Us in the face on every side, 1t Is difficult for one to
reslzs tho fact that the country is, nevertheless
making money out Of this wsr-making By saving.
Yet The Mobile Register argues and plausibIy, too
that such is the indubitabIe fact. That paper &C.
lects single artcle-the article Of shoes-to es-
tabhsh its theory. We viii estimate that each per
son, young aud old white and black, says the Regis
ter, consumes in the course Of year five dollars
worth of shoe leather in it's various manufactured
forms. This Is making very low estimate, for
many more persons average twice that amount than
fall below it. Il is safe to estimate that three
fourths Of this amount Of fifty million dollars
worth Of shoe leather for ten millions of people
was bought Of the North, and would be this year
were it not for the war.
Thus at the close of the first yesr of the war,
the South will have saved to its means st least the
sum of thirty-seven and half million of dolars,
which it would otherwise have paid OVER to the
North for the article of Shoe leather alone. This
is money made, for it is money saved. 1t would
have gone out Of the country to its loss and to the
gain of the North. To be sure we would have got
the goods in return, but in years time this per.
ishable value would have disappeared forever,
while the sellers would still be in possession of our
money, worth as much as ever. The following
year we should again have to give them thirty
seven and half million of dollars for shoes out Of
the receipts from cotton ales, and so on year
after year, raising cotton for the Northerners.
As in the article Of shoes, so in q vast number
of other articles with which we supplied ourselves
frsm the North. Millions were paid for these, un
til the grand total of the bill We annually made at
the North reached several hundred millions of dol
lars. As we cannot spend this now, OF course we
retain it in the country, paying portion of it for
such supplies of necessary articles as our home
manufactures are already producing in considers
bic and rapidly increasing quantities So the wealth
is not only saved to the country, but the necessity
for its expenditure among our own producers
yields much employment to our own people. II
the whole cotton crop had been destroyed in the
field, the nation would still have made money by
the war, for it prevents its expendfng twice the
value of the crop in outside purchases. As it is
we have the crop on hand, and have spent nothing
comparatively, while home manufactures have
been splendidly encouraged.
sursey of the credit side Of the war, then, is
most encouraging in these features. The country
is saving much more than the prosecution of the
ment is spending is not spent by the countryis not
means gone from the country-sent sbroad-taken
from the wealth of the country. The Governments
expenditures are disbursed within the country,
which loOses nothing. The money changes hands
among our people, and the country at large re.
mains just as well off as if the Government were
not paying out these millions and millions in war.
The progress of trade is of course, utterly revO.
lutionizsd, and SEINE branches of commerce, as the
cotton business, completely prostrated-which re
fleets severely On the planting and other interests
Such things are the effects of the war upon indi-
Vduals and communities of individuals, upon flnsn-
ces and certain business interests-moreover, most
descriptions of real property;are temporarily de-
precated-but all these facts do not affect the ohe
great fact that the country as whole is making
money by the WARRIOR it saves money, and money
saved is money made.
We must not overlook another item, which may
perhaps besplsced on the credit side in so informal
n calculation as this, inasmuch as what ia to ou1
own profit is our enemy's loss. If we are pre-
vented from spending thirty-seveH and half mil
lion of dollars for shoes, the North is prevented
from receiving that much from US. So our enc
mics lose just as much as we make. Thus to the
extent that the war is losiug business to them i
is profitable to US. The Northern journalists al
ways iDgenuously omit to include in the estimates
Of war costs, the several hundreds of millions
which their country loses by not making on South
ern trade.
We may briefly state the comparative fRancia
aspects of the in both countries In the NORTH
the Government spends money and the nation loses
money. In the South the government spends money
and the nation saves money One leak compensatel
the other in this country-more than compensate!
! it. Inthat country two leaks are running and, o.
course, must exhaust it.