New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-11-18
HOME MANnrAcToRIEs.

there are other branches of labor that
should not be neglected, for they can also
be made profitable, and at the same time
beneficial to the agricultural and CONNER
cial interests of the country. American
industry should not necessarily be confined
to the production of the raw materials.
1t can be made to embrace all
kinds Of manufactured articles. And
while it is desirable that manufactures of
every description should meet with en-
couragement in every section OF our vast
country, every Southerner should hail
with pride and satisfaction the introduce
ton of manufactures generally in the
South.
The New England States have mate
rally added to their prosperity by the es-
adjustment of cotton and wooden mills,
boot and shoe manufactures, etc. Many
articles are manufactured in those and
other States of the Union that find
markets in the South, where the work of
manufacturing, to very great extent, has
been neglected.
The policy of encouraging home manu-
factories and home labor by legislation
was early thought of. The great American
statesman, Henry Clay, became the ardent
advocate of protective tariff many years
ago. He deemed protection necessary to in
spire spirit of enterprise in this important
branch of American industry, and place it
in position to successfully cope with
foreign labor and foreign manufactured
articles. The sage of Ashland was long
the champion of the protective system.
and his powerful eloquence and logic
were necessary to successfully COM
bat the free trade arguments of the
eminent men who opposed him in his
day, and could not be made to see the
beauties of protection. But could Mr..
Clay have lived until now, he would find
another great industrial interest ready to
combine with the manufacturing interest
in efforts to have his ideas prevail. In
proof of this the journal Of Commerce, a
weekly journal published in st. Louis,
devoted to agriculture, manufactures,
and the industrial pursuits generally, as
serts that 4" the farmers of the West are
beginning to see the importance of home
markets for the surplus products Of their
fields, and that home markets are DEEPEN
dent upon manufactures for an existence,
and manufactures upon PROTECTION for
life, vigor and prosperity.
This assertion is well calculated to
cause our statesmen and legislators of the
present day to pause and reflect before
offering opposition to system of protec-
ton that involves so many important in
terests in this country.
1t is urged that We have not the popula-
ton, the labor, to enter largely into man.
ufactories at this time, but this is thought
by many to be no reason why manutac-
tories that are established should not be
protected, and made successful as far as
friendly legislation can do it. If manu-
featuring can be made profitable, capital
its will be encouraged to enter largely
into that branch of business, and under
the prospects OF good wages, labor will
rapidly flow into our country from
Europe-where it is but poorly paid-and
filling up our cities and towns, and caus-
ing them to rapidly grow, will help to
create the home markets SO necessary for
the success of those who cultivate the
soil.
The government and people of this
country are certainly interested in know
ing that in one year QS51), according to
the great English agriculturist, Alder
man Mechi, ''the English consumption of
cottonwood was seven hundred and sixty
millions of pounds weight, for which they
paid eighteen millions of sovereigns-
ninety millions of dollars. After making
it up in every conceivable form and pat
tern, and supplying all of their own peo-
pie, they sent as much abroad as brought
home thirty millions of sovereighs-one
hundred and fifty millions of dollars
These facts and figures are sufficient to
SSisfy all who choose to investigate the
great profit that is to be derived from the
manufacturing of cotton and wooden goods
alone. But when to this is added the
fact that countries which are exporters of
raw materials only, are invariably poor
because they are steadily exhausting the
fertility of their soil, there is still further
reason for the encouragement Of home
manufactures, in which the steam engine
and machinery of modern invention can
be made to rlay an important and profita
BILE part in this country as well as in other
countries.
There is no lack of evidence to show
the immense benefits that must flow to
this country from the establishment of all
branches of manufactures in it's cities
and towns. The inventive genius of
Americans is acknowledged to be great
and they are reckcaed to be cute and en-
terprising. They are the inventors Of
much of the machinery that is used with
so much profit in other parts of the
world in manufactures; and yet this
branch of industry in Our country is in
a great degree neglected, particularly
in the South, and foreign markets
have to supply us with much that