The Portland daily press., 1863-05-14

ton of Lincoln and Hamn the last straw
the back of the camel But it not the
only one The back was nearly broken before
The point upon which differ from my friend is this
He says he thought it expedient for us 10 put this
great question before the world upon this simple mat
ter Of wrongs on the question.
Mutual Dependence of Town and CountrA.
No halucnation more fatal to the prosperi-
ty of city can possibly possess business men
and capitalists, than the idea that the country
alone is dependent; that the cities and large
towns are independent, or that the prosperity
of the country is the result of the growth of
our cities. A city almost always depends for
its growth and prosperity upon the success of
interests outside of itself. Boston does not
give life and energy to Lowell, Manchester,
Lawrence and the other hundreds of manu-
featuring towns and cities which lie back of
her, but they form the separate streams which
combined, have made Boston what she is. If
New York had done for those places in the
start what Boston capital did do, their cur
rents might be setting toward the Empire City
and Boston remain the staid, quiet, romantic
and very properly-behaved Tri-mountain of
generations past. Yet the people of that city
were possessed of comprehensive and liberal
views. They would SOW in seed time that the
harvest might wave in abundance. The thous-
ands that have been planted in the founding
of manufacturing towns, and the other thous-
ands required TO open railroad communication
with them, are now returning, doubled, treb-
led, quadrupled in the prosperity which crowns
that city, and gives to it character for enter
prise of which every Bostonian is proud.
What Boston has done and is doing Port
land shoulddo. 1t is no excuse that she is small ;
she is larger and more wealthy than Boston
once was, and has natural advantages never
possessed by that city. The trade of the
country, like a coy maiden, must be sought
with an earnestness, will, and a heart. If
we do not seek to secure and retain it, wiser
suitors will bear off the prize. We sometimes
hear merchants complain that the country
people do not sufficiently appreciate the ad-
vantages of Portland for trade, but do they
sufficiently consider their own duties to the
country, or have they complied with the con-
ditions on which alone the country trade
should be expected? Have they taken proper
pains TO inform the country merchants of the
advantages which may here be enjoyed? Have
they sufficiently identified themselves with the
interests of our own State? Have they placed
themselves in sympathy and communication
with the country, as the heart is in sympathy
with the body?
To be more specific: We appeal to State
pride, and call upon the people of the State
to sustain their own merchants. Our mer-
chants are presumed to take part in and SYM
pathise with this appeal. The country mer-
chant, we will suppose, feels the force of the
appeal, and resolves to act upon it.. He comes
to Portland to make his season purchases.
He purchases bill of domestic dry goods, for
example. When he gets home and opens his
goods he finds them labeled-what? "Andros-
coggin," Bates" "Pepperell," york" Not
always. Likely as not he finds them labeled
Manchester" Pacific" "Naumkeag" or
"Merimack." The farmer who has come to
Portland to encourage home interests, finds
that his scythe or his AK, his shovel or his hoe
bears Connecticut stamp upon it. The wag-
on that lie has purchased in the city, he finds
was made in Concord or Amesbury, and the
pillow with which he opens the fat burrows has
been imported from the Old Bay State. The
good housewife finds, with all hel0 desire to
foster home interests, that she is washing in
a New Hampshire tub, with Cambridge soap,
on Connecticut washboard, and that she
has hung her Lowell sheets upon a Plymouth
clothes line. and is dressing her linens with
Nnrna tare rot A : Il
with an Old Colony sad iron,
So it goes. We mix inconsistency with all
this talk about State pride and the support of
home interests. The shan is transparent.
The veneering shows through so that the
most verdant countryman can see that the
anxiety to uphold home interests is mere
jug-handle afiair-al on one side The coun-
try merchant thinks if he is to retail Massachll-
sets wares he may as well go to Massachusetts
to purchase them. He sees no propriety in
coming to Portland to purchase Lynn shoes,
or Springfield shovels, or French hats made in
New York. He thinks, at any rate, he will do
better by purchasing of rst hands, and so he
goes to Boston and buys his wooden and hard
ware, and all the contrivances which Yankee
Skin and ingenuity have placed in the market
from those who claim at least to be interested in
their manufacture, for it is well known that
the leading dealers in the large cities make at
least claim of interest In manufactures.
They are either stockholders or manufactur-
er's agents, or something else that inspires
confidence in the purchaser that they have
special advantages in the leading articles in
their line of trade
How can this same impression be created
by our Portland merchants, and the same ad-