The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-09-11
now WILL THEY vOTEe


vative candidates in this and other Congress
sional Districts in the State stand on the
subject of Free Trade as opposed to Pro-
lection to American Industry. The in
quiry is an important one, as every voter
must see, and more vitality concerns the
future welfare Of Virginia than any one or
dozen otheNquestions now uppermost IN
the public mind. Virginia has for the last
two hundred years been shipping the raw
products Of her soil out Of the State, to be
returned only in that which measured value
money or that which contributed nothing
to the fertility of her soil in return. In
stead of pursuing a policy which should
bring the loom, the anvil, and the forge to
to the side of her farms, and thereby ena-
BILE her farmers to dispose of their corn with
out agricultural exhaustion, her people per-
sisted in course which virtually made the
Virginia laberer ga newer of wood and
drawer of water" to those who had the
sagacity to make the loom, anvil and forge
their own exclusive property. While
slavery existed and white labor sought no
competition with it, this state of things
was, perhaps, less inexcusable than under
u system which entails labor as 'benefi-
cent curse" upon all. That the shipping
of our agricultural products out of the
State for the period named, with no return
in equivalent elements to the soil, had the
effect to impovcrish the State-to drain it
of its agricultural life-blood, so to speak
none but the blndest political economist,
and one shutting his eyes to the most pal
pable results, would persist in denying.
At all events, the fact is so manifestly
visible in all parts of the State to-
day, that no man can gainsay it for
u moment. We see the evidences
of this exhaustion everywhere. There is
hardly square foot of land within hum
bred miles Of Richmond which has not felt
the ruinous effects of this policy-of this
drain upon the life-bood of the soil. Thou
sands of millions in tobacco, corn, wheat
and other staples have been wrenched with
relentless hand from the bounteous ele-
ments entering into the primitive soils OF
Virginia, and where is there any visible
equivalent for it all to-day? War did not
desolate and scourge the earth's surface.
1t rather enriched it with the blood that
should never have flowed in such a cause.
To a certain extent it stopped the process
of exhaustion, for it brought ruin to the
system which had forced this destructive
drain upon the State, and for the time being
shut off the supply in these blood-draining
staples. Thousands of acres OF land are
now lying idle, in partially recupera
tive process, by reason of the war, whiel
struck down the fearful vampire Of exhaus
ton which had fastened itself like a leccl
upon ON. soil. aa
TO repair what this oyershadowing yam
pire has done, under the false system o
political economy which gave it life, W
must bring the magic agencies of the loom
the anvil, and the forge to our own doors
and thereby save to our agriculturalsts tn
expense Of transporting their raw product
LhDuSduuo VI iiilNso away W q ihOSy WlSi
the cunning Of these agencies would give
them better and more constant market
right by their firesldes. Then, instead Q
exporting their corn in bulk, or expendinI
twice the cost of production to find it
market, these magic agencies would con
vert hundred times its weight and bull
into yard OF cloth that could be trans
ported to the distant market at hundre
times less cost, and yield better profit t
the manufacturer than it would be possibl
for the producer of the raw material &
realize from his more bulky shipment.
Under the magic wand Of these conyertin
agencies, towns, villages, and cities woul
spring up as by some sudden enchantment
and hundreds and thousands of consumer
press with their demands upon the agricu
tural industries Of the State. TO realia
these splendid results in Virginia, we mui
resort TO the same agencies that have MAD