The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1869-06-23
Home Products.

4AUAC 11VNuCLS.
There is, conceive, no one thing wherein we Of
the South deficient in judgment the disinci
nation to foster and build up home manufactures It
is not alone, though in great part because Northern
articles be bought cheaper, but somehow there is
| a disposition ii most 10 underrate what does not
come from distance. Every one WILL Of course dis
claim such weakness but it is predominant negerthe-
less And indeed this disposition to underrate what
ever is Of home has been the Of the South
Before tie war 4 man of means or for that matter a
man without means would have absolutely been
ashamed confess that he had never made the tour
of the North And in this connection another weak
ness or vanity largely prevailed 1t is within every
ones experience that there men who at home
wond have ground their poor neghbors down TO the
last cent, yet Broadway would scatter money with
lavish hand, fancyng, poor fools they creating
sensation, whereas they simply making them
selves ridiculous, and the objects of secret contempt
to the shrewd Yankee who, by humoring them to the
top Of their bent, was putting money in his purse
1t is in sort the weakness that prompts us
to give the preference articles manufactured at
distance from home.
We have been led into this honily by observing the
Vi wagons ltaG nave OF
late years been brought this place. 1t is idle say
that timber with equal and attention to
sonHg is inferior to that of the Northern and West
ern States But grant, if you will that it is, has it
been Complaint for years that all the tim
Der and the shoddy work is sent South? Let any one
examine these wagons and they must see that aside
from the elaborate painting, they Indifferent in
material and workmanship. We were once told by
gentleman having every opportunity of knowing that
in Newark, New Jersey, the carriage and buggy man.
aotorioa havo entirely separate warehouses for North
ern and Southern trade. 1t is needless to say who
get the inferior articles.
As to the difference in price, would it not be the
true policy to even pay a little more for the Southern
made wagon, as for other Southern products? By
sustaining for time such manufactures it will enable
them, by the purchase of improved machinery to
ter into successful competition with those of the North
and the money thus kept in the country will be apt in
the course of trade to find its way again into the peck
cts of the purchaser. There is no reason why we
should not have extensive machine shops, manufac
tories Of cotton goods wagons buggies boots, Shoes
brooms matches and in short of the thousand and one
articles of daily consumption, and for which we are
wholly ucptlucHb hpoil TIC +Noiui' ~ ny, ~" -
our tooth picks and the straws through which ueps
imbibed from Yankee friends socaled They
are infinitely smarter and pursue very different pol
icy There the money paid by consumers is paid to
their own neghbors and helps to build their cities
and support an industrious population. Here our con-
sumers send their money away and instead Of adding
to our wealth and population it adds to the wealth
and population of Northern cities There every mans
expenditure to give support and pros
pery c many neighbors all around him, by whom he
is again benefited in return in many ways Here the
same expenditure goes abroad and returns and
the amount of it is simply the measurement of i'm
povcrshment. These patent and incontFovertibe
facts, and yet in spite Of the obvious consequences of
this policy, still pursue it.
But what avails argument? Without wishing to be
100 severe upon our people we yet venture the
lion that were two men to go into the boot and shoe
business side by side, in this place, one with North
arn and the other with Southern made article of equal
value and the former were to sell his shoes five cents
per pair the cheapest, he would very soon bankrupt
his neighbor. Notwithstanding, too that different
meet his lawyers doctors aud merchants bills more
promptly, and to have given to the farmer more re-
price for his hides, besides retention Of
capital in the country.
Though the lasted long enough for most prac-
teal purposes it did not last long enough to teach
people the important lesson ofsefreance Or to break
through our long established habit of servie depend
ence on others for what we could produce ourselves
May not the high price of cotton after the war and the
consequent temporary prosperity have been, after all
a detriment instead of an advantage?