The Cleveland leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1865-1865, 1865-08-02

Wise Suggestions to Western People.
At a late meeting in Boston of Western
guest of the Board of Trade many able
speeches were made on the financial and
commercial questions of the day. Among
the most comprehensive and valuable was
one by,J. W. Brooks, ESQ, President of the
Michigan Central Railroad, q man Of ex-
perisnee, ssgacity, and large humanity.
His style is SO condensed and his words SO
laden with interesting matter, vi advise
their thorough perusal and most thought
tul digestion:
aThe want of a more steady and reliable
produce market for our great Western
grain region has often given much cause
for anxiety. Our power of production has
hardly begun to be developed, but even
now We are often without q market for our
products The natural buyers of surplus
food are the manufacturer and the great
body of these live too far away from us.
England does not import food from this
country until she has exhausted counties
nearer home, which usually supply nearly
all she requires. Sometimes q short crop
Will bring her here for 8 considerable
amount and run up prices 30 high as to
stimulate an r-productiOn and render
the surplus thereafter more unwieldy than
ever. Estimating the growers portion of
the price received at an average OF 20 cents
per bushel for corn, and 60 cents for wheat,
the exports of bresdstuffs for the last
eighteen years hsYe yislded 70 the growers
an average Of about thirteen millions of
dollars per snnum, rising as high IS $34,-
100000 and falling as low as $500, 600 per
annum, some years more than forty times
as great IS others, yielding TO the nation s
maximum of but s little over 8 dollar per
head, and sometimes falling below three
cents. This outlet is too Insignificant at
best and too unreliable st alltimes for so
important an interest in our national econ-
Omy. 1t has not prevented the price of
corn TO the farmer of Illinois from falling
to eight cents per bushel when it Is some
times over eighty.
Il is not q wise arrangement of the
worlds economy for those who raise 8 sur
plus of food and those who have q deticien-
cy TO be separated by q thousand miles of
land carriage aud three thousand miles of
ocean. Thus situated, it is no wonder
that the ~sgricultur5t and the manufacture
er, who should be natural allies, meet so
seldom and to such small purpose. Who
pays for this anomalous condition of things,
for the transportation of raw material and
food from this country TO the European
manufacturer and q portion of the product
back again 1t is paid by two parties,
The Western producer makes q large con-
tIibution in the lower price and reduced
amount ofhis produce, and the foreign OPP
erstive q very large contribution i
wages; and, shame to the nations ! long
hours Of childhood's labor, bring ignorance
and degradation, misery and want into
hundreds of thousands Of what ought to be
cheerful and happy homes. q t .
It Is claimed in England thst her cheap
er labor will always make it for our inter.
ests to employ her people to do our man
ufacturing. Without stopping 70 view the
selfishness of this advice, its soundness may
well be doubted. A hundred thousand ed
ucated, thinking operatives will invent, in.
g short time, more simplifying processes
TO chRspen the product than will equal
the differences in wages, and though cheap
labor will avail of these inventions, the
great result-c6eaper product-is due to.
the educated, higher.pNd labor. Among
al NS ANNOAo Vi LII ARkAOuE DOhctg ulhl
we be delivered from that of chesp labor;
it would be fatal to the institutions of a
self-gOverning people. Il ia the province
OF Boards of Trade-thOse most useful Or
CARNATIONS TO aid in securing to our land
the means Of most fully developing its re-
sources. It is the duty o everY Well-wisher
of his kind to place the hungry where
they can get food, to educate the ignorant,
and to restore men of all colors from sls-
very.
Whenever the statesmen of the West
shall feel it their duty, in the National
Council, 10 promote home manufactures
they know where to find New England,
and when we are all convinced, and act
upon the principle that agriculture, manu-
features, and commerce are natural allies,
this people, who have had, of late, so much
of common sorrow and of common JOY, will
not need to tell the story of their common
glory, for that will tell its own to the ma
EIon5 ol Gn9 UnUIe eHrJn. or