The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-01-17
WE NEED MANurACTUREs IN THE
WEAT.

WE NEED MANuFACTUREs IN THE
WEST.
In their opposition to Home Manufactures
the disciples of the British Economists quote
their absurd axioms as indisputable truths.
In the face of history, of experience and of
common sense, they assure the public that it
is no advantage to the producer of raw mate
rial and of food to have market for his pro-
ducts near at hand, because the manufacturer
has to pay the cost of transportation out of
his own pocket, and the producer of food and
of the raw material bears none of the burden.
Now every man knows, as a matter of fact,
the nearer the raw material and the agricul-
tural produce are to the manufacturing mart,
the more valuable they are and the further
off, the less they are worth. All farm pro-
ducts of whatever kind bear higher price
in the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia
than they do in Iowa and Minnesota. And
neighborhood of Keokuk than they are in the
country hundred miles directly West of it.
The wheat and the butter produced within
twenty miles Of New York and Philadelphia
are worth just as much in the markets Of
those cities, as the wheat and the butter sent
there from Iowa and the same is true of the
sheep, the hogs and the cattle But it costs
the producer in Iowa ten or twenty times as
much to get his cattle, sheep, hogs and grain
to New 1ork or Philadelphia as it costs the
farmer in the immediate vicinity to get his
products to the market. Then is it not clear
that the farmer in the vicinity of the market
realizes more for his products than the far
mer at a distance and is not the difference
as u general rule in proportion to the distance
and cost OF transportation II costs the man
who lives 80 miles back in Missouri two DAYS
with his team and wagon aud the expense of
remaining here over night to get his load of
corn to market, while the farmer who lives
FIVE miles from town will bring four loads TO
marketin the same time and stay at home all
night, without the cash outlay required to pay
for his night lodging in keokuk. Now who
bears the burden of the additional cost of
marketing produce thirty miles over that of
produce five miles of. Our contemporary
says it is the purchaser here in Keokuk but
the Miss ourian receives not a cent more per
bushel for his corn when brought thirty miles
than the Iowsn who brought his corn only
five miles.
The principle of this illustration is applica-
bic, whether the distance be FIVE miles or FIVE
%b :, L
axiom in this proposition, the nearer the
raw product or the agricultural produce to the
place of manufacture or the market, the high
er the price, and the further off the cheaper
it becomes and the further the manufactured
article from the point of manufacture, the
higher the price. And in both cases the cost
Of transportation is a material, if not chief
ingredient in the enhancement of the price
And any produce dealer and shipper in
Keokuk will make it very clear to any farm
er $ comprehension, that the said farmer can
not get as much for his produce here as it
will bring in Europe or in New York, after it
gets there by at least the cost of transporta-
ton, commissions and insurance.
1t strike us that no sane man who comes at
all in contact with the facts of the case either
in the way Of business or Of logic, can have
the slightest doubt that the producer has to
bear the burden of getting the raw material,
whether it be wool, grain or meat, to market.
And now turn to the other side, and inquire
who pays the cost oftransporting manufactured
goods from England, or the East to the West.
Ask the merchants Of Keokuk TO sell you cloth
prints, or what you please, at precisely the
same that they cost at the manufacturers.
Will he do it? Not at oil and the first reason
he urges is that the cost of transportation is
very high and he must be reimbursed for that
expense paid ou, of his own pocket. So, that
it is clear that citizen of Iowa, whether he
goes East and buys his goods of the manuiac-
turer, or buys from the manufacturer in Eu-
rope, or buys Of some merchant in Iowa who
has made his purchases of the manufacturer,
must in any case pay the cost of transports-
tion, in addition to the price of the goods at
the point of manufacture Hence we con-
clude again that as a practical fact so far as
the people of the West are concerned. they
have to bear the burden of the transportation
Of the raw material and their agricultural pro-
ducts to the Eastern or European market as
well as the cost of the transportation of the
manufactured article to the West, thus paying
the transportation both ways to all intents
and purposes. And therefore we think it
would be most desirable thing if we could
annihilate the distance between the Agricul-
turist and the Manufacturer and bring them
together to minister to each others wants
and prosperity here in the West, in Iowa, in
Lee county and all around us.
YEARS EXPERIENCE OF FREE
DOM IN MISSOURI.
The Missouri Democrat refers to the fact
that the llth Of January was the first ami
versary of freedom ir Missouri Only one
year ago slavery was formally and practically
abolished in that great State, and, instead of
the dangers and evils predicted, the State has
never been more prosperous. The negroes
have been peaceable and industrious and have
done more work than ever in any year before
Even the Secesh and Conservative press
Missouri bear testimony To the oe,eral good