The Portland daily press., 1869-02-08
DAILY PRESS.
CORTLAND. s
Monday Morning, February 8. 1869.


roclty Treaty with the British provinces =
North America is advocated. So Imalya ~
following suggestions with hesitation and dee
erence, conflicting, as 1 suppose they are, with
a pretty decided and unanimous opinion Of
this city in favor of such treaty.
can see that the opening OF markets to
our neighbors of New Brunswick, Nova Sco-
tia, and Canada would promote the wholesale
trade of Portland, Boston and New York.
but not to the extent claimed by the advo-
Gates of reciprocity. The revenue returns
show that we hold our provincial customers
in spite of heavy tariff, the premium on
gold, and the immense cost of transportation
from Europe operating 10 counteract the ef-
feet of high duties. The stockholders
In the International line of steamboats,
whose three boats per week can hardly
carry the st. John freights, that one and two
boats week used to carry easily under recip-
roclty, attest the same fact. Besides we have
freight-carrying boat connecting us with
Halifax, which believe we did not have un-
der free trade.
can see that the housekeepers in Port
land would be benefited by letting in provin-
cial potatoes at so cents, oats at 40 cents, beef
at o cents, butter at 20 cents, wood at dol
dars cord and lumber at 10 dollars per
thousand, instead of paying the farmers of
Cumberland and Oxford counties and the
iumbermen OF Penobscot, Kennebec and An
droscoggin about double those prices. And
to this advantage see no Offset.
But while free trade with the provinces
may benefit certain interests in this city. il
will injure and tend to depopulate Maine
The farmers and lumbermen of Maine have
prospered under the heavy taxation and high
cost OF living of the last five years solely or
account of the high rates. at which they have
sold boards, shingles, laths, ship-knees, piles,
wood, hay, grain, potatoes, oats, butter and
meat, the great staples of the State. Intelli-
gent and enterprising men are kept in this
cold climate only by the assurance of high
rewards for their industry. Bring all these
articles down fifty per cent. as we should BY
receiving them duty free from the British
provinces, and our people now thriving in
Kennebec, Penobscot, Waldo, Washington
and Aroostook would move off westward, not
in families but 10y whole school districts.
They have done this before on far less revul-
sions in business than the revival of re-
ciprocity would produce. The true wealth
and prosperity of Portland is to come from
the wealth and prosperity of Maine. Maine
and Portland must rise or fall together Our
reliable trade will be the trade of our Eastern
coast towns by water, and our interior towns
by railroads. Let Portland develop in all
ways these modes of transportation and link
her fortunes more closely with her own
neighbors, rather than seek to grow at their
expense. 1t is from eastern and northern
towns thriving in their commerce, their ship
building, their manufactures, their agricul-
ture that Portland must expect her best Gus
toners, aud from successful business men
from the east and the interior, seeking to 1e-
tire upon competence, that she must expect
the most desirable contribution to her popu-
lation. 1'rA -f Elk.
Free trade with the Provinces is not Just
and equitable arrangement, as between our
selves and the country at large. Since four
months the national debt instead of shrink
ing has been slowly gaining upon us. Rev
enues fall of. 1t is evident that we must
either strengthen our tariff or our excise
laws or both, and submit our weary backs to
still heavier imposition of taxes. The rev.
enue, which we propose to give up derived
from the entire Provincial and Canadian
trade must be made up in new exactions
from the over taxed industry of the country.
/ 10 fircf 0r "a
shall be equal. The country at large will
never consent to let up the lumber trade OF
the produce trade, or the shipbuilding inter-
crest or any other interest from the common
burden. If free trade is fair for one business
or one locality it is fair for all. Let us have
a just and equal tariff or equal free trade !;
no iaVoritism, no dead-heddiaq.
Our tariff imposes duty upon the people
OF all foreign nations, though in {. ct the
duty is paid by ourselves as consumers. WHY
make preferences among foreign people?
Why prefer Canadians to Cubans, or Bra
zilians, or French? Especially what have our
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia neighbors
done to entitle them to such preferences, and
how did they requite their ten years untaxed
access to our marketse They filled our ports
with their cheap lumber, cheap wool and
cheap produce, carried in their cheap built
vessels, upon which they paid no tonnage
dues, and, while we were sweating to death
under taxes, that doubled the cost of every
thing we produced, they came and went un-
taxed, selling the currency OF their half
solvent banks at the Fictitious price of gold.
L
10 pay for this treatment, so much better
than we gave ourselves, these petted neigh
bors went into the rebellion with as much
venom as though the feud Of the South with
the United States was their own. Their
whole press favored the rebels, and to give
them more material aid, Halifax and st.
John become nests of blockade runners, and
safe lurking places for pirates, while an in
vasion of mongrel guerilas and burglars
threatened our boundaries and once descend
ed upon our frontiers across the st. Croix
Ten years of reciprocity did not seem to have
made our old relations to the east of us
either amiable or grateful.
There is no need of abating our general
tariff system to accommodate these frienGs
Deals can be bought at st. John, the premi-
um on gold, freight to Portland and duty can
be paid and then can be sold here as low
as the same kind OF lumber from Machias or
Calais. Fat beef can he bought by the side
at St. John or Montreal at cents per pound
premium on gold, / "a cents, duty cent,
freight IL cent, and be sold in this market
for about one half what our butchers sell il
! to us from their carts. Do our Provincial
neighbors deserve an easier access than this
to our markets? To be entitled to our scale
of prices for their goods it is no more than
fair that they should bear with us the bur
, dens which enhance our prices. The remedy
for bard times in New Brunswick is annera-
ton. Il.
Rotation of Nannres.
We are inclined to the belief that many o
our farmers have never considered the impor-
tance of rotation of manures, while the
changing of crops may be familiar to them.
Their chief anxiety has been 10 get manure