Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-09-08
THE ADVANTAGES OF MANUFAC.
TUREE.

The Chicago Republican, in making sort
Of running contrast between the prosperity
of several cities, offers some suggestions
which are instructive. That paper observes:
This is at present rather commercial than
manufacturing emporium. Yet it is admi-
rably adapted to manufactures, being the
natural centre of vast region aboundiug
in coal, iron, lead, salt, timber, stone and
agricultural productions of all descriptions.
As commercial emporium, art is continu-
ally adding to its natural facilities, by the
construction of railroads, the improvement
OF canals, ana che ifsereasn ssa ..,ss.ala@s and
capacity of steam and sailing vessels on the
lakes. But, after all, manufactures are the
true basis of municipal prosperity They
create commerce by making markets for ag.
ricultural productions. Changes in the great
routes Of travel and traffic may annihilate
the commercial prosperity of a great city,
but cannot depriveit of the advantages which
manufactures confer upon it, They are per
manently its own.
The city of Philadelphia is noteworthy
example Of this truth. 1t was once the
commercial emporium of the country; the
center of the great monetary transactions of
the United States New York at one time
had but secondary monetary and CONNER
cial position compared with it. But the great
inland routes of travel began to change. The
Erie canal opened up the great west to the
commerce of the world, and New 7 Yorkleaped
at once into the commercial emporium of the
United States. Had not Philadelphia then
turned her attention to manufactures, she
would have dwindled into an old-fashioned,
second or third rate town, situated some dis
tance up an unfrequented river, called the
Al
been more noted for It's antiquarian associa-
tons, than its present remarkable CONNER
cial and manufacturing greatness But
Philadelphia possessed the spirit of PENN,
of FRANKLIN and of ROBERT MORRIS, and
laid the basis of its prosperity down deep in
the foundations Of true municipal and ma
tional greatness. The natural characteris-
tics of the people of Pennsylvania also ten
ded to mould the destiny Of the city. Pa
tlent, working, temperate, saving and
frugal, its population, in which the German
element largely predominates, has industri-
ously and indefatigably carried out the ideas
of the founders of the Quaker colony, while
to-day we find those ideas bearing fruit in
harvest of permanent manufacturing and
commercial prosperity.
Let Chicago initiate Philadelphia in this
respect. She is now the great commercial
emporium of the northwest. Let her pre-
serve the position which nature has given
her, for all time, by founding it thoroughly
on manufacturing industry.
By the late internal revenue returns we
observe that the taxes assessed for manufac-
lures in the five districts of Philadelphia
nous sum rt q t. P,ish the Il eo1FIS o6Iy
the tax on manufactures of the city for one
year. 1t is estimated that four per cent. is
the average duty on manufactured articles.
Some are specific, that is so much per ton
or pound, whilst others are so much per
cent. So that the above tax represents
gross value of manufactures of $I69, 49,
l12 And Philadelphia thus manufactures
an amount of goods of the value of nearly
one hundred and seventy millions of dollars,
which it is estimated, including income tax,
yields revenue to the government of twelve
millions FIVE hundred thousand dollars
nearly Can anything more strikingly il
lustrate the value of the manufacturing in
dustry of a eountry2