Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1870-10-28

he resources Of the State will safely
warrant.
The War and the Cotton Crop-The Folly
uf southc.n Planters.
1t is no; often that VIC quote the New
York Tribune as authority for anything,
but despite its political vagaries there is
uniformly a degree of good sense in its
observations on the practical affairs OF
everyday life that commends them to the
sober consideration of all. Some remarks
in its issue of Tuesday, on tho pres -
embarrassment of Southern planters and
tho ruinous pol cy that led to it, may. in
our Judgment be cassed under this head.
At least as such, we give them to our
readers; with a cordial endorsement, and
the planting community may profit by
them if it will.
"While every week Of European war and
business arrangement (says the ITibune)
buoys the hopes of the wheat grower and
susta1ns his price, in the same ratio is cot
ton depressed. The declaration Of hostil-
tiles in July, followed by the amazing
iapse of the French armies, has made it
more and more certain that thousands and
thousands of spindles must cease to run
that millions who bad money to buy cloth
last year Will have no money this year.
Navigation became timorous and capital
over-cautious.
1.-The result is just what all the South
feared-cotton hardly over a shilling a
pound-in fact, less than twelve and a half
cents, gold. It is now quite we'll ascer-
! tanned that cotton gives no profit worth
mentioning when the price goes below fif-
teen cents, and none at all when only ten
is the price of good middling. At the
J New Orleans fair, in April, the cost of
pound Of cotton was discussed, and the
conclusion reached that on the best allu-
vial soils, in good season, and with close
management, ten cents will make pound.
But on the average up land, and with the
average economy, the planter loses who
does not receive fifteen. Southern pros
perity. which for two years has gone be-
yond all precedent in the days of the old
regime, has received blow !; the planter
is disheartened the merchants are afraid
to buy, and Southern goods are gathering
dust in the lofts Of New York warehouses.
"We have again and again counseled
the cotton growing States that devotion
such as they have given to a single pro
duct, for marketing which they must look
to foreign countries, is bad economy, and
can result in no lasting and permanent
thrift. A community that lives by cotton
only, or wheat only. or tobacco. or rice, or
sugar, will run over great surface with a
low and exhaustive tillage. Nothing is re-
turned to the soil for crops taken off. Pros
perity is measured by dollars that come
over seas-not by such true tests as the
condition of roads, houses, bridges,
churches and stock. A foreign market is
precarious market. When it is gooda il
throws abundance of spending money into
the planters pocket, and he scatters it fol
things that perish with the using. He buys
| a saddle horse from Kentucky, carriage
r in New York ; his family indulge in expen
! sive silks, rare china and velvet carpets.
Q "Then comes a crash tho merchant ha
t advanced several thousands on crop tina
: hardly pays for picking, and holds mort
: gage on the land. Expenses must be re
= duced, the old luxuries ere partly aban-
Q doned, and retrenchment throws a gloon
Q over the family and broods over the neigh
b borhood. Another year the price goes up
: and with it the profusion of living. Thu
d agriculture, instead of proceeding with th,
!, wise calmness and grand uniformity of ma
. ture, becomes q speculation, almost
r game. If the planter becomes
1 gumester, what wonder that the mer
r chant, the lawyer, the politician fol
Q lows in his wake. and the whole socia
3 fabric is convulsed by q sudden telegram
1 from London. Cannot our Southern bfeth
S rem see that composed, well-based, es-
? tablished, yet progressive civilization il
= inconsistent with their misplaced conf
dence in a single product {? and will they
/ not take lesson from the gloomy ex-
: perience of this year, and no longer prop
all their hopes on cotton bale Though
the planter makes only his living this
year, he is by no means poor. The CROP
of 1868 and 1869 paid him handsome re-
! turns, and he eau commald the means o.