New-York tribune., 1867-02-07
CITY AND PROTECTTOH-LABOB
AT1NUYACTUPE0

view TO the extension, diffusion, and per-
manent prosperity of Home Manufactures 1t
also urges extensive and systematic migration
inland from our constantly overpeopled sea-
board cities holding it morally impossible that
poyerty and wretchedness should not abound
where the number seeking employment is so
constantly and largely in excess of the wants
Of employers. The World deems these several
positions inconsistent, and assails them as fol-
lows:
"Tbe most recent statistics Of population show that
urban population Of the United States s growing into
GeoeT WITH aG S TSbUSE this Wholesale esrn
the manly heathfui. independents ana vrtnefay9rlng
operatives lead in cities Il sorry exchange II the cry
labOTer marrles he lives In cranpedi dngy tenenenl
in a hand-tO mouth way. with perhaps dozen. other
families in the same house. deprived Of the blessings of
cleanliness and pure air, and bringing up ms cmaIen
not marry he too often spondshs earnings in drink and
dissipation Now, why should THE TRIBUNE pun dowh o
Sgh tariff for which it so ncessanty camors is bribe
TO forsake life OF rural Independence for employment In
lures must be conducted in large establishments and be
located in large towns both for tho convenience o ns
trbutjng their products and receiving their materials
and supplies fo build up manufactures is 20 collect
people IN Cities and az the tendency TO flock TO ces Is
coufesedy great and needs TO DO eDated why docs
TnE TRIBUNE wish TO stimulate it by unjust legislation
Why promote by lay what you discourage s 9 oy TeSr
years but during the whole time You have supported
laws which completely neutraliZo uU is really Deler
70 eat cheap bread and breathe pure ar in the country
than 90 pay ts barrel for flour and live amid drt III "a
town why should legislation be perverted TO BRIDE people
into the swarning dens in which manufacturing aboreTs
bring up their sickly childrenP
Response ty Tho Tribune.
Tho Uorld must allow us TO state our own
views. They are succinctly as follows:
/. We hold that the tru0 interest of our peo-
pie and of mankind requires that the pumber
and proportion Of producers of wealth, as well
as their efficiency in producing it, be every
where and permanently increased, and that the
number and proportion of exchangers or dis
trihutors Of other mems products, and of all
parasites on the industrial body polite, be
steadily and evermore diminished. This is the
keynote of our entire political and social
philosophy.
III. We hold that the planting or extension of
Manufactures, in countries and districts now
mainly or wholly Agricultural, tends strongly
and generally to secure the desired end, by re-
ducing the cost of transportation and the charges
of importers, jobbers, factors, forwarders, SHIP
peIs and middlcmen of all sorts, and necessar-
ily increasing the rewards of productive indus
try. If, for example, farmer III Iowa grows
a surplus of ono thousand bushels OF gram,
which he sells for two hundred yards of various
British textile fabrics and one tun OF British
| vraree ana rnstai-, while ut least half OF the
value of both produce and manufactures is ex'
pended in getting the grain from Iowa to In
gland and the manufactures from England TO
Iowa, IL must be that the recOmpcnso for his
labor realized by farmer and manufacturer
alike would be largely increased by attracting
the manufacturers from England TO Iowa, or
even so near that State "a arc Pittsburgh and
Chicago. The farmers would now receive more
cloth and wares for their Rain; the manufac-
turers more grain for their cloth and wares.
Protection commends itself TO our approving
judgment as a system OF enormous labOr-say-
ing, by bringing producer TO the side Of pro-
ducer and thus cutting down, if not wholly
cutting off, the heavy cost of making their
reciprocal exchanges.
ILL., We urge the migration Of working men
from the great cities 10 the broad, free West,
but not with q view TO their universal employ
ment in Agriculture On the contrary, il they
were all to bc farmers, we hold that their con-
dition would be that most undesirable one, so
vigorously depicted by Gen. jackson in his
famous letter to DR.. Coleman. We urge men
to go West and become farmers, because we
mean 10 have them accompanied and followed
DY OIllCfS WHO bldl lutI6 DC lDcCHduICS u tInhuS,
manufacturers, and thus consumers of those
farmers products. We do not admit that arti-
sans are necessarily less virtuous or less health
full than farmers; we deny that the policy We
favor tends to aggregate the population IN
great cities; on the contrary, we would replace
one bloatcd Birmingham or Sheffield by n
dozen, diffused all over the civilized world.
Even here on tho scaboard, new manufactures
tend to such locations as Bridgeport Waterbury,
and New Britain, Conn, Paterson, Trenton, and
New Brunswick, n. j., rather than to the great
cities like New-YOrk and Baltimore. The bust
ness of printing books is now leaving the great
cities for more economical and more desirable
locations. The exceptions rather prove the
rule than invaldatc it. In so far as the use of
steam and machinery constrains the aggrega-
ton of nhabtants--which is not nearly so far
as The World assumes-we hold that each
nation should bear It's part in overcoming the
evils and dangers of such aggregation.
I'VE scarcely hope that theso views will
modify the habitual lcvity and flippancy where
with The World treats the very gravest and
most vital questions. In the Protective Policy,
it can see nothing but a few rich manufac-
turers seeking to increase their already exorbi-
Etnt plOHtsj forgetting tndI Ihc lOuhuh'io"S WI
this policy were laid when American manufac-
lures had no substantial existence-laid by the
representatives OF farmers and planters like
Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson, who sought
to benefit their constituents by drawing manu-
facturers into their neighborhood. But let us
get Reconstruction out of the way, so that we
can bring this question home to the great body
of the People, and We have no fear for the re-
suit.