The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1871-02-28
Another Fallacy Of protec,Ion.

From some very carefully prepared
tables, we learn that the number of com
mercial failures and total of liabilities
in this country during the past four
years have been as follows:
Number of
Year. failures. Liabilities
1867, 2,7S0 $500. 900
1868, 2.60S 1854, 900
1859, 2,799 1864, 600
1870, 1881 SS.242. 900
This shows an annual increase of
twelve or thirteen millions in the losses
by failure since General Grant became
President, while from 1867 to 1868 there
was decrease of over thirty millions
We cannot imagine more luminous
commentary upon the ECONOMY of the
Government" and Secretary Boutwell's 8
brilliant financial policy, than these fig
ures embody.
TO assume. as has been done by Ger
tain theorists, that there is profit to the
country in the failures of the mercan.
tile chase is to uphold that subtraction
of numbers adds to their aggregate,
Nor has any other class of the. country
profited by this adversely of the business
interest, except, indeed, the auctioneers
and the lawyers, whose commissions and
fees are always augmented by disturb.
ance, just as vultures are fattened 0y a
state of war. The merchant must pros
per if the producer would, and just here
lies the whole evil of the Protective
System, which districts trade by re
stricting it, The prosperity of business
of all kinds, like the health of a com
munity, or the health of an individual,
depends upon free and vigorous cir.
culation. The merchant is not indeed
direct producer Of commodities, but
he is consumer of them, and so pro
duces a part of their value in exchange,
and as such Is just as necessary to the
producers well being as the producer is
to his.
In state of nature it is possible for
man to live without trade, and the Cir
culation and exchange which trade oc.
casions, but not in a state of artificial
society such rs civilization makes ha-
bitual to us. What would be the use of
producing wheat and corn, meat and
butter, wool and iron, gold and silver,
if exchange did not put these things in
circulation, make them valuable, and
aflix such price to them that men will
be compensated for the labor expended
in their production? Now, trade is not
collecting toll at all Trade is just as
much productive as farming or mining.
The value of thing is the labor that is
given to the varions processes of pro
ducing it. A bushel of wheat is worth
thirty cents, say. on farm in Iowa, ten
miles from a railroad. That thirty
cents represents (very inadequately)
the farmers labor expended in produ
cling it. He hauls it to the depot and
gets forty cents for it, thus being paid
ten cents for his labor in taking it sc
far 1t is by the railroad taken to New
York, thence to Liverpool, and sold
finally for 81 DO, each addition 20 the
price marking some labor expended up
on it, or else some obstruction to trade
caused by a protective system. The lie
gitimate addition to the price is, how
ever. pay for labor, and as such is as
much producers charge as the cost o
seeding, harvesting, or threshing.
| In 1860 pound of sea island cotton
worth in Charleston say fifteen cents, af
ter being twice sent across seas, ant
handled. perhaps, by hundred differ
ent hands, returned to Charleston in thu
shape of less than a pound of cambri,
or some such, worth s.. Each person
handling it, labored on it, was paid, hac
his profit, and was thus able to pay tn,
producer money for more cotton,as wei
as to buy corn and wheat, &C., else
where. Now, suppose the continuity o
this beautiful circulation arrested by ac
of Congress, putting an embargo on tn,
export of cotton, what happens? Th'
planter cannot make the cambria from
the raw lint, because that is not his bu
siness; and if he could, be could not ge
the price, for that price represents tn,
circulation of two voyages and the la
Dor of a hundred hands. But not onl,
will the labor of hundred hands be ar
rested,. and fifty mouths incapaciatet
from consuming-the demand for TIL
cotton itself ceases, and the whole bu
siness is destroyed.
| N,>x, fi,;a r,kot -
tariff effects. 1t lays an embargo upol
production by diminishing consumption
1t taxes everybody. but the farmer ha
to pay the most. 1t is like the nationa
debt, which has been compared to :
stone rolled down stairs, humping upol
every step, bat resting with all its.weigh
upon the bottom step. The farmer
price is the residum after the labor Q
every one who handles bushel of grail
has been taken out Hence, when tn
tariff makes railroad charges heavier
and warehouse and commission an,
shipping and exchange and insuranc
charges heavier, the farmers margin Q
profit is continually shaved down, unit
finally, instead of making money by hi
business. he loses. No wonder, there
fore, that the capital vested in farmin!
cannot be made to pay 2 per cent.
A Gloomy Picture.
Herr Wachenhusen, the able Germa,
correspondent at Versailles, writes afte
the capitulation '.Who will reconstruc
France, whose society is utterly disor
ganlzed? Credit is gone; work ha
ceased; no one can borrow; no on
tpays; officials have received no salar,
for nearly half year; railways are il
| the hands of the enemy; the public de
apartments are administered by hostil
/ Commissaries taxes flow into the enc
,Emy's cash-box; the roads are nearly dc
stroyed, and bridges blown up; who'll