Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-10-19

grana Object OF life, and It is as essential TO
DC eiothed as Wen as fed Then Is not the
pfoDiem easily solved? The exporting Of our
currency may finally bankrupt our State.
ana as &c IS impossible to do without the ne
eessafles Oh NE do not sound judgment.
reason and prudence dictate thai ~. ,,.,,,,
facture every article the sol and climate
will permit within our own State? -
Rhode Island has one hundred and tvvan-
ty-six mills that spin cotton alone. wifi ono
million, eighty-two thousand three hundred
and ninety-six spindles. Massachusetts has
one hundred and fifty cotton mills. with two
million three hundred and eighty-six thou-
sand spindlcs. The labOrers of these AMI
other factories, combined with tie de,,selv
populated cities of the North, afford a mar
ket for the agricultural product Of a great
portion Of the United States.
We are aware thai there are many estab-
lishments of the various factories in con-
temptation and already in operation in the
State of Tennessee. But are there enough
to supply all of the wants Of her people
Agriculture and mechanism in Europe, and
with all other prosperous people, stand
linked hand IN hand. And would it not be
well for the people of Tennessee, if need
be, for time suspend the hand of agricul-
ture, that they might aid mechanical insti-
tutions?
Nature calls aloud for an equilibrium in
all the goings of man. The ship that sue
eessfuiiy moves upon the bosom of the
deep bears an exact equipOiSe, with neither
too much ON the starbOarJl or the larboard.
She stands the storm and calamity rides the
wave.
We know it is said that laborers are too
scarce and the people of Tennessee are
unable to establish factories suited to the
present wants OF the people. We have
heard OF the man. who was sick because
he was hungry, and too sick to eat any
| thing. Is this the present condition of tile
| people of Tennessee shall we again draw
| upon the already exhausted fertility of our
land in the production Of cotton; and thus
compete with those of the cotton growing
lands of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Ar
kanas, or shall we seed our fields to grain
and throw the product upon an already
| oyer-glutted market; supplied by the grain
growing regions Of the northwest ? The
agricultural report of 1865 shows that
Tennessee cultivated Independent of
cotton little more than three million
four hundred thousand acres of land, esti-
mated at a cash value of Only fourteen
dollars and forty-eight cents per acre Al
| though this was better than many of the
States south of us, it was less per acre than
any State north of the Ohio river Should
we take One-half Of all the laborers Of Ten
nessee into cotton and other factories, the
result would be that we would turn out or
seed to grass One-haK Of our lands, which,
in five or ten years, would produce more
than all do now, in their present condition,
ana although we should pay more, for a
time, for field labor, we could find better
market for agricultural products, and get all
necessary articles of mandatory cheaper,
minus the transportation of the raw mate
rial north and the article back to us, besides
the extra profit TO all through whose hands
it must pass.
1t is also said that We must 90 90 harder
work, and buy less. This is, we admit, the
only alternative under the present system.
Next it is suggested, that if we densely
populate our State with immigration, il
viii be an all-sufficient remedy. We do
not object to immigration, yet we see
but little inducement to offer them as agri-
culturalists. Rather let them comehs manu-
! factUrers.
Would it not be well for the peOp'e Of
Tennessee, should our law exempt from
taxation-the real estate necessary for the
establishment of factories and all capital
therein invested for given period of years.
We know that all of this viii not be ac-
cOmplished in one or five years. Yet it
is important in reaching the summit of
prosperity, that We make every step in the
right direction. Should money get scarcer
for the next five or ten years, with the
same ratio it has for the five past, what will
be the value of money? And will not ten
or twenty years reduce the wages of field
labOrers to a mere trihe. And man
under these considerations must, from gen
Grafton to generation, bow down to hard
labor, without the means or an opportunity
to perform the more noble duties of life,
by gratifying the higher faculties We have
| said, providing physical necessities was the
subordinate duty of man; but as the wheels
of a carriage is to the carriage itself,
so is the body to the entiIe man. Thus,
the more noble duties cannot be accom-
plished until the physical wants are sup
piled. j. S. ID.