Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1871-05-20
AGRICULTTRE AcAINST MANU-,
FACTURES IN THE SOUTH.

AGRIGULITRE AGAINST MANU-.
FACTUREs IN THE SOUTH.
Aiwriterin the Southern CuItiva-
tor--a paper weaIways read with IN
ferest and Advantageous Of the
SoHtl,ern people:
.-our legitimate business is agriculture,
and Nc the labor Of the country were
properly devoted 10 that interest, our
prosperity wouId soon I've restored. Our
populntiou is net dense enough for prof
liable manufacturing, nor have we the
capitul to invest In such costly expert
ments."
There is much that il plausible In
this unreasoned dictuns, and much
more that Is mischievous. 1t may
he assumed "that agriculture is the
Legitimate business" of every country
outside of the tropics where nature
provides for the few wants Of savage
life and says, TO the half-brute in
habitant--"root hog or die ~ But
1t Is not the legitimate business of
our people To raise more cotton and
tobacco Than the world needs, and
depend upon the surplus proceeds to
buy, of their neighbors, those agri-
cultural, and other products which
they could, with equal legitim acy,
produce for themselves. This sys-
tenn Of agriculture Is, yearly, making
the South poorer and the North rich
or. If this be the legitimate BUSH
ness Of the Southern people, they
stick to 1t with coMmendable tideli-
ty, and pay more than 1.-THE trib-
ute to- their generous task masters,
aud what is more, do 1t rs matter
of choice and for no other reason than
to vindicate M absurd theory that
agriculture Is their legitimate busi-
ness.
Agriculture has, however, broad
or meaning than the writer, under
review, attaches to it.; and, II taken
In its broader Significance, the theory
Is more nearly correct. II the South
will produce, In abundance, its own
bread and meat, and every thing es-
sential to the rearing of horses, mules
and cattle, giving. spare labor to the
production Of cotton, then this greal
staple would he clear profit to II.
cultivators and enable them to buy
manufactures of the North and still
the South would grow rich. But
why stop even ut this? Manufactur.
ing Is as legitimate here as In the
North, and IL half the money eX.
pended upon railroads had been spent
in the erection of machinery, there
would be, now, no complaint Of want
of capital or the sparseness of popu.
latlon. Machinery brings popula'
ton and, brings and retains curren-
cy, railroads do neither, except very
indirectly. They serve to carry cot
ton and tobacco to glutted markets
and bring back, at u ruinous cost
the very articles which it Is not legit
imafe to raise at home. The writer
in the same article says:
1.-THE present system OF manufncturin,
In the United States, is n stupendousf fraud
built up to foster one section at the cx
p.nse of another, ana the sooner it Is ex
ploded the better"
II the writer means that the taiif
system gotten up In the interest o
the manufacturing "Ring" Is fraud
we agree with him, right cordially
and II the South will resolve to avail
itself of the-bOnus offered by the tar
lit IL will find northern greed ant
northern injustice promptly at worl
to abolish n system about to prov,
more beneficial to us than to them
selves. But manufacturing is lie
Ultimate business everywhere, and |
only fraudulent when class legisla
ton gives II undue advantages II
particular localities. In the South
needs no protection, because the con
tiguity Of the factory to the raw ma
tcrial is an advantage greater tina
can he conferred by laws, and tn
only formidable competition tn
South would have to encountel
would grow out Of its inability {
supply the domestic and foreign d,
mand. Let us suppose there wa
machinery in the South, sutiicier
to work up five hundred thousan
bales Of cotton, Is 1t not probable
not ccrtain-that the profits arisin
thercfrom, together with the obviol
advantages Of placing the machin,
ny In the cotton field, would lead
the immediate transfer OF many co
ton mills, from Old and New En-,
land, To the South +? In that even
they would bring with them, skill,
labor ami common operatives to swe
our population and consume the pr,
ducts Of agricultural, as well as m
chanic labor. The result would he
power In the South--political al
pecuniary- greater than Is possess,
by any people on earth. The Yal
KEGS know, and fear this, and hen,
their persistent Efforts To divert IN
migration from IA, and thus keep
In the condition az n servile and po'
crty-stricken people, despiscd al
abandoned by all the world beside
Aud we, short-sighted and tam
spirited fools, lend them hclpi,
aand In the work of our own degr