Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1866-03-28
A Case Stated for Everybody.

Many years ago, We frequently conversed
with the first white man born on the West
ern Reserve, in Ohio This was before the
days of railroads. His experience anteda-
ted the construction of the Erie Canal, which
connects the waters of the Hudson River
with those of Lake Erie. He described the
manner in which his father recounted to
him the tedious emigration from Connect
cut to Ohio Reaching the Hudson with a
small company, they embarked in a sloop,
which took them to Albany. There they
obtained passage on a boat, which was
forced upon the current of the Mohawk, by
men working with long poles. Towards the
head OF that river, at very early day, a
rude connection had been made with the
waters falling into Lake Ontario Follow
ing this route, the little company reached
the Lake. There they pitched their tent,
and fell to work constructing small boat
W hen 1t was finished, their scanty goods
were put on board, and they toAsomeiy
/ crept along the coast up to the mouth of
| the Niagara, and then up that stream as
far as Lewistown. Here portage had to
be made around the rapids and the falls. 1t
was slow and exhausting labor to haul the
goods and boat to near Black Rock. AT
last this point was attained, and the party
| again embarked, aud hugging the shore,
| finally reached the mouth Of the Cuyahoga.
Next came the work of building log
| houses. They had axes with which to cut
| the logs, but no horses or cattle with which
to draw them. House building, with only
such scant accessories, was a hardship; but
! finally it was accomplished Then followed
| the labor Of clearing narrow fields and get
! ting in, as best it could be done, some crops.
| At length other settlers arrived from Con
| necticut by land, bringing a few cattle and
horses with them. BY excl angling labor,
| housed uilding/ and field-clearing became
| easier
The soil was reasonably good, but it took
| the proceeds of an acre to buy pound of
tea Of the trader at the point where Cleve
land now stands All other needful com
| modities We're purchased, if at all, at cor
| the trader were regulated by the cost and
| risk of getting goods in and carrying the
| produce of the soil out; and the adventur-
Gus pioneers had to paythe charges of trans
| portation both ways - Fl
BY and by, one after another, came in the
| blacksmith, the shoemaker, the carpenter,
| the mason, and the tailor. These became
consumers Of agricultural products. There
was established. onsthe spot, an exchange
of the results of labor. Costs of transpor-
tation were lessened The trader, or mid
die man, made no gains by these exchanges,
but the gains were made by the exchangers
themselves, in the form of diminished prices
Indeed il did not matter what prices We're
put on the commodities exchanged, so long
as the prices on one side were ratable to the
prices on the other Labor is the real meas
ure of value.
SO the settlement went on, increasing in
numbers, by fresh arrivals from the east
and by births. Employments became more
and more diversified. Broad farms appear
ed in the wilderness; mills were erected
villages arose roads were made ships float
ted on the lake; piers We're formed au the
mouth of the river; canals were dug; rail-
roads were laid a city existed our family
had become hundred thousand. At last
the produce OF an acre would buy hundred
pounds of tea and the acre had risen from
the value of dollar and quarter to be
worth thousand dollars; in some instances
ten thousand.
A consistent British free -trader,-if such
an one had by chance fallen in upon that
infant would have told the ad-
venturous borderers that it was foolish for
them to desire mechanics and manufactur
ers to come into their neighborhood ); that
all the articles they required could be bought
much cheaper in London, Liverpool, Bir-
mingham and Manchester than they could
be made ia Ohio; and that the part of gen
uine wisdom consisted in buying goods when
they were cheapest. - as.
Every man of sense perceiyes that such
advice, followed out, would have been fatal
to all progress that the settlers would have
totally failed of success "a agriculturists and
been forced to betake themselves to hunting
and fisqing as the only means of ekeing out a
precarious existence. Free-trade would
hava raduced tho settlers to harbar risn,
This instance common one-illustrates
and enforces the whole doctrine and prae-
tice of Protection to Domestic Industry.
The only way to chearen commodities
in nominal but in relative price-is to lessen
ortfacilitate the changes in place that is,
the transportation of substances between
the places were they grow or are produced
and the places were they are required for
use. Herein is one of the grand secrets of,
individual competence and opulenee and OF
national increase and power. fttfsourg
Gazette.
Gen. Nye, in his speech at,the late Re-
publican meeting In Baltimore said very
aptly that the Rebels, five years ago, defed
the power of the Government to keep them
in the Union-Iow they defy the po yer of
the Government to keep them out of the
Union.
BY the last census of London, it appears
that there are more Scotchmen, there than
in Edinburgh, more Irishmen than In Dub
lin, and more Jews than in Palest Inc.
sfti5 iit ~ = = -------:i = -
'What will you take first in Canada p
asked a quizzing ankee of faithful Feni-
an s.Hot whisky punch" was the prompt