New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1866-01-29
IRON.


Providential economy which deposited very
little Coal and Iron beneath the soil Of New.
England. For, had this been otherwise, those
nefarious "Yanks" would have set to making
Iron--they are none too good to do it-and
then such statesmen as Senator McDougall Of
California would have talked, even when sober,
such amazing drivel as this:
Gentlemen here seem to think that all progress no,
been centralized in the question OF the condition 81
serytude In the South. How does 1t happen that the
Democratic party Of the North had any relation to
the majority Of the SOUTH For this reason; Because
the Democratic party Of the North held TO the doerae
Of free trade. The Democratic party to-day hold the
same doctrine. They do believe that New England,
with her manufactures, should oyerwhelm the he.
pubc that every interest beside hers should be taxed
TO maintain her, They believe In the large policy which
has been developed by modern European and American
civilization. which been taught by oil great writer's
aud preached by ali great thinkers for the last hall
century The Democratic party will maintain that
doctrines they have always done and therefore they
akin TO the South and for other Ii was
because they always opposed the excessive taxation
which thought necessary 70 make milllonares OF
oil New.England.
New gland has to-day one.half of the moueyed
wealth Of the Union grant How has 1t come about
1t has taxed every bushe Of corn and every pound Of
wheat aud product Of labor. East West. North and
South for the purpose Of sustaining particular policy
special to New-Eneland The South thought It detri
mental themselves; the tnonRht
to themselves and know it is detrimental to the coast
to which belong; for we pay an immense tarii0n for
the privilege Of being governed to the manufacturers Of
New lands and they have become prosperous that
enterprise cannot pete with them in other parts OF
the country. Enterprise in California cannot compete
with them because they have been built up with such
strength by the legislation Of the Federal Gov
ernmeDt"
Yes; but for the benignant denial Of Coal
and Iron to New.England, while both abound
in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois and through
out the great West those who are allowed to
sit in the seats of Madison and the elder Bayard,
of Clay, Webster and Ewing, might utter such
driyel as the above, and not really know how
essentially loathsome it is.
We must have Iron in ever-increasing quanti-
ties. The advance of people in civilization is
pretty accurately measured by their increased
consumption of Iron.
Those branches of Manufacture which the
policy of Observation-Disclosures Against her
protest and her votes--has naturalized in
New. England, will be gradually ditlused all
over the country. The Wool of Wisconsin and
Minnesota will be spun and woven on their
own soil, by those who eat their abundant
Bread and Meat where it is cheapest and
most wholesome. So the South, relieved
of the incubus of Slavery. will make the Cot
ton Fabrics she requires, instead of sending her
Cotton to the North and buying thence her
Shirtings and Sheetings; but our Iron industry
cannot be transferred to New-England, be-
cause of the bnlk Of the Ore and Coal to be
con med in the production of Iron. Every ten
years ought to see our production of Iron at
least doubled and that Of Steel quadrupled;
while Lead, Zinc, Copper, and other OF the
baser metals-none of them found. to any ex-
tent, at the East-will be required in like pro-
portion. Shall We buy them from Eu-
rope or dig them from our own soil
If there be any metal not indigenous here, we
would import it under no other than Revenue
duties. Show us that some natural impeachment
such as our climate, in the case Of Coffee,
Pneapples and Spces-forbids the production
on our soil of any article, save ct considerably
greater cost of labor than is required to produce
it elsewhere-and we will oppose any effort to
protect it here. But the simple fact that we are
beginners in any manufacture, while other ma.
tons have attained all proficiency therein, so as
to be able for time to undersell us,
is no reason at all for our importing
it-as John Stuart Mill fairly admits in
his Principles of Political Economy" We
now make hundred important articles
such as Flows, Axes, Scythes. &c.-at once
cheaper and better than We could obtain them
from abroad; yet, if we were to begin to make
any of these to-day, it would doubtless cost
more for time to make it here than to import
it. But Iron is so essentially product of mere
Labor-a tun being substantially an aggrega.
ton of so many days work-that we can hardly
hope to make it so cheap as it can be imported,
while our Labor costs double to quadruple the
price Of just such Labor in Western Europe.
We therefore expect that Iron will need Protec.
ton for many years, or until Europe recon-.
penses at least her skilled Labor more fairly
than she now does.
But does it thence follow that American Iron
costs more1 This the clique who arrogate to
themselves the knowledge of Political Economy
habtually assume. Thus Prof A. L. Perry, of
Williams College-who has lately essayed to
teach bis cOuntrymen the Elements of Politi-
col Economy thus satisfies himself that it is
always better. to buy whatever is offered at the
lowest money price:
"A and viii not exchange services, unless the ef
fort which each renders the other ess than
the effort which each would have to make II each served
himself directly. 1t msy DO asserted with
confidence that will ever knowingly make
greater eot satisfy desire through exchange than
the effort needful TO satisfy 1t without exchange.
"The tailor snd blacksmith can probably exchange
their respective efforts Just so soon as each has rea-
10 the nfher In hia