The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1871-08-09
Influence Of Diversified Industry.

From Horace Greeley,s late speech
before the Texas Agricultural Society,
at Houston, we take the following:
admitting that the South has grown
and still grows too much cotton, (andI
judge that three millions of bales grown
in 1870 w0nld have netted her as largo
a sum as the four millions she actually
did grow,) I see no way to counteract
this tendency bnt by introducing new
branches ofindustry whereof the pro-
duct will also command mercy. In vain
do you exhort the average planter. TO
grow more corn and make PORK; he is
often in debt, and chooses to produce
what will surely sell for the money he
sorely needs. He is sure cotton viii do
this; he is not snre rs to corn and pork.
But plant one hundred cotter and as
many wooden factories on the soil of
your State, making a steady cash mar
ket here for wool and meat, for grain
and vegetables as well as cotton, and
now your agriculture viii naturally
and certainly dividge its forces and di-
versify its products. Farmers, will
grow all these if they know that sure
cash market is at hand. A denser pop
ulation,. greater variety and range
of employments, these are pressing
wants of the entire South. Every
wheel set to turning ON q Southern wa
ter, every mandatory of edge-tools
or farm implements, Started in any
of your cities or village, is certain pro-
iitably to divert labor from your cot
ton fields, as naked preaching never
will. There Is hardly an acre of South
ern land which would not be doubled
in value if Southern farms were main
ly cultivated with Southern made i'm
plements, Southern backs clothed in
Southern-woven fabrics, and Southern
dwelling filed with Southern,made
furniture and wares.
"Am I calculating what would in
jure my own section 2 Not at all. The
more you do for yourselves, the moro
you will require from abroad. The
State of Arkansas has more inhabi-
itants than the city of Boston; yet tho
latter, while the focus OF an immense
interchange and large consumption of
domestic products, buys and consumes
far mere of the predictions of foreign
lands. Our purchases are limited, not
by our needs, but by our means. A
Thousand times it has been predicted
that we should destroy our foreign
commerce By protecting home industry,
and thousand times this has been
proved fallacy by increased imports
under high duties. If Texas were ex-
pending four times as much as she is,
per apnum, in the purchase of home
maids, ware and fabrics, she would buy
! far more abroad than she now does. II
she had dozen ax-factories in full OPP
Grafton, she might import fewer axes
than now, but her imports of steel, iron
uHd :" huaared other articles, would DO
swelled beyond computation.
~ hold the naturalization of new
and the extension of existing manufac-
lures among the most urgent wants of
this State, as of nearly every young
community. Hence, ,hold-not that
you ought to pay high price for a
poor article because it is homemade
not that you should forego the gratifi-
eatien Of a legimate want because the
article it contemplates is not of Texas
growth or fabrication-but that each of
You should give an intelligent prefer
ence, other things being equal, to what
ever is made on your own soil-should
buy your harness, or saddle. or pail,
or broom, or pillow, or ak, of your neigh
boris make, in preference to one bought
abroad-should take and pay for some
firstrate Texas journal before looking
abroad for better. Having thus done
your duty by the community whereof
you are a part, if you arc willing and
able to take a second journal, might
possibly aid you in finding a good one.