Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-05-18

abroad; but it is obvious that wherg 50,
ownership TO land is maintained, or whers i
} possesses any marketable value, unprotecte'
Wool cannot long be grown. We might a
well undertake TO compete with tie Noun
tains of the moon is with the unclaime
} tropical plains. Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin
ana Illinois, as well as Ohio, Pennsylvanis
New York, and Vermont, must abando
sheep husbandry, so indispensable to the con
tlnued fertility of their soil, if the WOO @
the unsold, unfenced, untaxed, wild waste
OF the southern half of the globe are to b
permitted to enter our markets free of duty
Nor will any Gd Udlorern duty serve apy goo
purpose. The foreign valuation is at so DN
a figure that an dd UGlOrem duty of even 81
per cent. is but a bagatelle. We have trie
80, 40, and even so per cent, and alwsy
with the same result. Nothing shortoi
specific duty will give any positive protection
1t is true that the present prices of wool Ar
so low that the number of sheep has bee
very greatly reduced within the last wear il
AustI ALA, as we'll as in large portions Of th
United States. No industry there or her
now pays less profit than sheep husbandry
but it may legitimately be expected bence
forth to improve. Besides this, 1t ougb
never to be forgotten that the fiber of mos
foreign wool is exceedingly tender, Will
that gr own in the United States is strong
Cloth made Of American wool is much NOR
dura BILE than that made of foreign wool
The future of the American wool grower i
not too bright; it has no advantages to sx
cite envy and it is the duty of an Amer.ar
Congress to do all in its power to presGvt
one of the highest forms of agricultura in
dustry, and at all hazards to save it fou
being crushed by evasions of the law, BY tie
patrons of free trade opinions, or by th.
blind sclfshness of few manufactures
The exaggerated prices of wool and wooen.
during the war have passed by, and free
traders would have us believe that the rres
ent low prices are the legitimate result q
high protective duties. They predicted, on
the passage of the wool tariff, that the poor
man would have TO pay many dollars in tie
shape OF bounty to the wOolgrOwe On
every suit of clothes bought but it so mp
pens that The poor bs s-I.. vs,czie5
clothes cheaper than at the present momeDi
The consumer has nothing to complain F
and has not been sheared by the wa.
grower.
THE COTTON TRADE.
The price of cotton having doubled nd
its manufacture having been extended am5o
many nations heretofore nearly altogetsp.
dependent upon England for cotton SITS
competition is likely TO maintain high pres
for the raw material, although the suppl Of.
the world is no less than in 1860, when E,
land monopolized the crop On the contir1t
OF Europe and in India, as well as the Unied
States, they have begun to spin and wave
for themselves. Lancashire suffers Ter
people are out of work, and denounce Zee
trade and the reciprocity treaty with Fras,e
ThereuPon the London Times of Septer1er
Is. 1860, discourses as follows, namely:
Why, for example, should the Americans no
used TO be well pleased that should spin { on
while they grew it, resolve now to be spinner,.nd
correspondent did tell us plainly, that we ha, ct
ter let the HndOOs resume their old trade of ctor
spinning and work up the produce Of their Wn
neldss How Is II that France finds il for her acln-
tage to take up this manufacture which wa jur
monopoly so short a time ago'"
" New cotton fields have been opened, hut1ex
cotton factories have been opened too, some 4 Ter
the shelter of protection, some perhaps in a ore
natural atmosphere There j. a more extensiu de-
mand for the raw material, which rises in PRO as-
cordingly, and that rise in price deprives us1f a
condition essential to the superiority we once lin
tanned"
This is a confession from which we ,ht
to profit. The workingmen of Great Br ain
are IN distress. The guardians of charities
for the poor cannot relieve the sore vans of
all their supplicants. But her statesne do
not find any relief springing from thei So
called system of free trade That ne her
feeds their people nor furnishes a marke for
their prod ucts, when other nations bega 10
assert their independence and their fretom
from British monopoly. We may commisrate
their people, but we cannot vet afFoH to
adopt their policy.
TIE NEW FORCES OF LABoR-sAvING MAcHNEs
New inventions and the applicatio Of
labor-savlng machines in modern times1aye
greatly improved the condition OF labrcrs
They are no longer slaves and serfs, nc ere
they treated as beasts Of burden. but a,nen
responsible for their acts and 70 whom nbers
are equally responsible. Under our free
form OF government, with no hereditalg es-
tates, all OF nearly all of our citizens ar en-
gagged in some industrial employmer5 OF
business which demands a chief shase of
their time. Age and physical infirmitv fur-
nish almost the sole exceptions to this RE.
In lS4l, Chevalier, distinguishes Fench
author. sought raF.ae-so-i - rsressions a, ts.a
advance in productive power CAUSE ssnOd-
ern improvements, which were not only uri-
Gus but seem to have been unimpeachabe as
to their general accuracy. Since that late
further advances have been made, but he hen
estimated the increase of power as to mnu-
facture of iron as twenty-five OF thirty to
one, of bread, since the time of Homer as
one hundred and forty-four to one of cotton
fabrics within the last century, as three ha-
dred and twenty to one. He also found tht
one American in the transport of goods VS.
equal to six thousand six hundred and fit
nine of the subjects of Montezuma, and IL.
one man attending a mule in England
America is equal to three thousand two hpJ
drrd and sixty-four natives of India spinnin
by hand. The author of Pathology say.
that forty years ago three men with dificult
made four thousand sheets of paper per dan
now they easily produce sixty Thousand
Lace used to be produced by hand at the rat,
of three meshes per minute, but Noting
ham machine will now bring it forth at th,
rate Of about twenty -four thousand meshe,
per minute. Three tons of coal, it has beer
estimated, will give an amount of force equn
to a strong man working twenty years, thre,
hundred days in each year. All this is nod
ern. The present age is so much in advancu
of the past, and this advance is for the ben
eft OF the whole race, and not for feuda
chiefs, or few aristocrats, or a single nation
The improvements in agriculture from il
nature could not be expected to show sud
conspicuous strides; but it is a moderate es
innate to say that the agriculturalist viii
seizes hold of the best and most improve,
implements does one-half better than coul(
his father in the old way. Human labor il
abridged and yet brings about greater re
suits. In the bleaching of linens the worI
of eight months is now performed ina singl,
hour. First, sulphuric acid, then chlorine
and last, chloride of lime, has supplante,
the ley and buttermilk and green grass o
Holland, and linens may be bleached withou
much loss of time wherever they are made
Obviously intelligence, not mere muscle
now contends for the mastery. Labor
lifted from its degradation and carries n,
unnecessary load on its back.
In order that any country. should largel
increase its wealth, it must increase its ma
terial productiveness, and this can only b
done by adding to such forces as may hav
been bestowed by nature upon the countr'