The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-30

uVuSiy anu prOspefOusly, the relations be-
tween our varied industries must be defined.
and the claims of all regulated and balanced
each with the other. II these industries con.
tinue involved in perpetual strife, all must be
injured. Yet it is by personal strife by peril
nacious scheming, that each now seeks its ends
at Washington.
Whenever a revenue or financial measure is
introduced in Congress, delegations hurry on
to represent cert ain localities and branches of
business; and, in their struggle, success is too
apt to be proportionate, not to the intrinsic
merit of the cause, but to the diplomatic skill
displayed in the management of committees,
aud to the weight of influence used in button
holding honorable members. We hear of men
going TO Washington in the cotton interest, in
the iron interest, in the wool interest, or, il,
may be, in the New England interest, in the
Western interest," in the Southern interest;
and these interests, thus meeting in antagOnism
at the Capital, attack or support the measure
under debate, whatever 1t may be--not upon
general principles, but in view of its presumed
relations to particular places or persons.
Sometimes two of these interests combine
for the discontinue of q third; but no at
tempt is ever made TO ascertain whether there
is not a common ground on which the best
prosperity of all may be secured.
Before our domestic and foreign commerce
healthfnl development, a process of adjust
ment must be found. Our commercial legis-
lation, to be wise and salu ary, must be
framed with reference to all parts of the
country, and every department of industry;
and to ensure this there must be no pressure
upon it from any one or more localities or in
dustries.
These should be represented elsewhere than
at the seat of government, and with the inten-
ton not to discover which is the strongest, the
richest, or the largest numerically, but to
secure and prOmots the common welfare.
They should at the outset accept the po5tu-
late that iron, cotton, and wheat are not
necessarily or inherently opposed to each
other. and that there is no natural inoompati-
bility between the prosperity of east, west,
north, and south. All manner of trades and
occupations flourish side by side within the
same street, within the same city; why not
within the same UniOnP There may be cir
cumstances under which it is desirable for
representatives of some one trade or business
to cOnv for conference and cooperation; but it
would serve a far better public object if mer-
chants, manufacturers, agriculturists, and for
warders assembled together for the purpose
of agreeing upon commercial and financial
schemes designed and calculated to advance
the we'll being of all unitedly.
Of course in such meetings concessions
would be required on the part of most, and
probably of ALL and thus, while each would
yield something, each would also receive seme-
thing. In the end, therefore, by the removal
of all friction and occasion for jealousy, each
would be strengthened and enriched to a
degree which could never for any length of
time be maintained in an Ishmaelitish strug-
gle, every hand against every other.
We suppose it to be with some such object
as this that the Boston Board of Trade at the
instance of boards of trade in the West aud
elsewhere, has issued a call for general Com
mercial Convention, to be held i'll Boston on
the fifth of February next. The topics an
nounced for consideration are, as we have
before stated, the improvement of inland
means of communication, the adoption of
uniform system for the measurement of grain,
the adjustment of the currency question in a
opinions, the restoration of the ocean com
merce of the country from its present state of
depression, and the organization Of national
Chamber OF Commerce..
Thus delegates from the prairies will unite
with residents on the seaboard in examining
into the causes which have injured the ship
ping and diminished the tonnage OF, not the
Eastern States, but the Union, and in devising
means for restoring the flag to its old position
on every ocean. 1t will be pleasant to see the
miller and the manufacturer seeking together
to remove obstacles in transportation which
embarrass their interchange of commodities,
and thus trying practically to diminish the
distance which now intervenes to their loss.
And as to the currency, contractiOnists and
eXpansionists will meet, we hope, without
prejudice or passion, to find out, if possible,
what policy is best, not for the East as against
the West, or for the West as against the East
but for the whole country.
a. Ea IN II