New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-27
XIV.
CONCLUSIONS.

l have contemplated the case of our own country
because of my special interest in her welfare. and
because am more familiar with the essential facts
in her case than am with the corresponding facts
in the history. resources and position. Of any other
| people. Whether it might or might not be well for
Great Britain to have all the Ore. Cotton. Wool.
Flax. Hemp, &c. grown on the globe shipped to her
ports utilized in her furnaces and factories and sent
abroad for sale in manufactured form, have mob
so closely studied. and do not decide; yet am
that it would not be best for the Laboring Class
generally and doubt that it would be best for that
portion of the British people in particular. For
cannot shut my eyes to the truth that other things
being equal the farther staple Is transported from
! its producers for fabrication. the larger il the
| percentage of its value which must bo abstracted
from the proceeds to pay the cost of such ranspora
ton and this percentage must DO deducted from tho
ayails accruing to Labor. If send Apples TO Hs-
vana in order to buy Cuban Oranges with the pro
ceeds we should be very unreasonable to
expect to receive many Apples for each bushel or
barrel of Oranges the Cuban consumers gave FOR
| them; and with everything exported and i'm
ported We should be recOnciled TO receiving fewer
Oranges than the number of Apples we sent by the
consideration that Oranges grow luxuriantly in
Cuba and are grown with difficulty or not at all
here and 80 far as cOntrasted pecuartes of soil
climate dictate such exchanges, they are abundanuy
justified But the case Is entirely different with
gard to Satinets or Sheetings. Nails Needles which
may be made nearly 0rquite welltthat Is. with 40
| little laborl-in one country as another. Show me
| that our country lacks the raw material or other
natural facilities for producing any all of these.
and will agree that she should not make the at
tempt; but if the reason urged for not attempting
it be the greater aggregation OF capital machinery.
skill &c, which thousand years effort and expo
II a.
have been denied to not yet attained by u.s. then
hold that fallaciOus reason, which ought to be
overruled and rejected. If we lack experience let
us acquire it, if our nforiorty inhores in unopened
mines and unbuilt railroads factories or furnaces
let US provide whatever we lack. and thus qualify
ourselves for supplying own wants under every
possible advantage. The reasons which dictate alb
stinence from any effort on our part TO grow
Coffee or Cinnamon Cloves or Cacao have no exist
ence or no application when we contemplate the
| production or fabrication Of Plaids or Cassmeres.
Gloves or Ginghams. which may be produced with al
little labor here elsewhere.
true Political Economy. in my conception, re
CARDS with especial interest and favor tho pro
ducers and production Of wealth. II there
| be community of ten thousand persons
whereof one-half are Of fit age to earn something
it dslikes to see half this productive force dis
| spated in subsidiary and non-productiye employ
ments such as the various departments of transpor
tation and traffic. 1t does not blindly sweepingy
| condemn Trade as useless and Improbable to tho
community; for it recognizes the benehcence Oh d.
yersity Of pursuits and knows that the efficiency or
Labor is thereby promoted; and where each labors
only in that vocation for which he is best fitted By
skill and experience exchanges Of products arc in
evtabe and these fall naturally If not necessarily
into the hands Of q class devoted to and presump-
Alx... oIaEekx
and substantial justice. But Commerce should be tho
servant not the master of Industry, which is better
served and at far less cost where the exchange are
few and the exchanges direct and pie than where
they are needessly complicated aud absorb large
share of the ability aud force of community.
Doubtless if all our Clothing as well as our Cloths
| were fabricated in Europe, we should have
larger and for q timel more hourishing commerce
than we now have, with more persons living and
| making fortunes by Trade than at present. but the
dividend TO Labor from the aggregate product OF our
National Industry must be proportonally and sbso-
lutely less than it is while the proportion of our
people who could find no work would be far greater
Unless Europe could make Clothes for us in half
the time required to make them here-whIch she ceS-
tainly could not-there would be o loss to us and
loss to mankind of the cost Of sending our Wheat
Wool, Cotton Cheese. Meat. &C., &C., to Europe TO
pay for our Clothes and bringing over those Clothes
and diffnsng them throughout our country; and this
loss would by no means be limited to the heavy cost
OF transportation both ways but would be swelled
| immensely by the hazards of shpwreck. fire, and
damage during transit we'll by the charges and
| profits of those through whom the exchanges wero
effected
Then says a Free Trader. those exchanges.
| proving Improbable, would be superseded and
cease"
"Unproftable' 10 thomf Not to the exchangcrs.
| who, having all the clues in their hands. would DO
living and generally prosperins by their bnsa-
ness and would be yeryf likely TO make
efforts and sacrifices to subvert any rivalry thss
threatened TO supplaat them And their command
of capital experience, skill, and tho channels Of
trade, would give them very great advantage over
any rash adventurer who should attempt to riy1
| them by making Clothes own soil. Inevita-
bly, those who had long enjoyed the profits OF Clothes
| making would display more elegant, attractive and
even cheaper garments than their raw compettom
and triumphantly ask the public to decide whether
the labor which produced the Wheat. Cotton. Wool
Tobacco. &C., wherewith their goods were paid fos.
was not as truly American as that OF the botches ana
extortioners who mpudently besought our people 20
| buy clumsy ilmade. unsightly insisting garments
at exorbitant prices under the absurd pretense thss
they would thereby encourage Home Industry
TIora ara men a. we'll as women in this country
who now have their garments mainly made In Eu'
rope and if they honestly pay the duties charged On
their importation, make objection. They help
to defray the heavy burden of our Public Debt;
and they do not materially depress the wages OF
labor If we had never imposed q tax on such I'M
portation, there would be twenty garments imported
where one is now, and the art of making elegant
fashionable Clothing would not have advanced
among us nearly so far as it has Done Now let "
lfay