The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-12-26
Grain Not Cotton. is King.

From the st. Louis Democrat, October 1e
The present panic has brought j
the foreground several very cnri,
and valuable facts: /. That gain
KING, ana not cotton. 2. That the g
OF Europe may be made to dow
America hereafter if we SO viii it.
That New Orleans has made ! woe
mistake in treating the Western p
duce trade with SO much Indifferent
and giving all of her time, Attent
and capital to the cotton trade
These three propositions ae prov
as follows: New York city la aires
received from England 91,OO,OOO ST
ling in gold 100000 more ne en- rOu.
Canada has sent E700,00O toNew Yd,
Chicago, Milwaukee, and ther plas
in this country. How mua does is
amount to. Ten millionaof doll4.
All this money has been ent oversO
invest in American graz. Englsd
must have bread. She m wait br
cotton, Her people museat wle$r
they spin or not. New Cleans tO-ty
has 10000 bales of cobn on hill,
worth $4,000, 900 in prperous tins.
Yet she is short of funds She is ny
ing eleven to twelve per!ent. premim
for gold in currency, vie New Yrk
is selling gold at eightand one-hlf.
She IS paying nineteen twenty Gets
premium for sterling tchange, willie
New York is selling it seven to eight,
She is paying eighty hts per busel
for corn, while New Yk pays but fifty,
nine to sixty-one. 81 can't sell he'
cotton, and she musbuy her bread
and meat at high priG, not havingths
cash to pay for then The latest nd
vices from there say tton is lower ana
dull, and corn is srce and tending
upward. Yet New deans sits at the
mouth Of q river thhavigable wGtefs
of which drain q way producing hun
dreds Of millions bushels Of gran
every year. If NeDrleans would but
do one-half Of herAty, cOrn would lie
selling at forty cel upon her market
to-day, or forty-e cents at most.
Spring wheat Wd1 be abundant at
81 25 for No. 9, thigh it is now bring
ing 81 SO to 81 40I New York. These
facts would havefawn the 10000, 600
of gold into eiOrleans to-day in
stead of to New Fk, and activity and
thrift would haybeen her experience
instead of thehprovident, wasteful
and Observation-Disclosures which is now
upon her. Trg she has cotton, but
when can she sGtT When New York
and Boston mthants shall begin to
send extravagS orders to England for
goods of all Ills; when the railway
builders of lerica shall again de-
mand of Engd all the iron she can
make. Not Ech sooner than this
surely. AT lei there will be no &C
tivity in tFErade for some time to
come, becaushe merchandising trade
of England y be lifeless for q COM
Daratively ID time. America is En-
glands large customer, and America
has we'll nj stopped buying. The
things that gland has to sell we can
get along wout for months to come;
in fact, We b manufacture them our
selves in future if we will. But
our wheathn, pork, lard, butter, ETC.,
England Mt have, and, as we won't
take her eie, she must pay us in gold.
Is il not 81 to see that our panic will
be transfed to England presently if
this thinbes on ? for it involves the
sbuttingTof the workshops, the clos
ing of ms, stoppage of factories, ad-
anc ineadstuffs and a steadily in
c~reasinate of discount by the Bank
of Engl2.
But iAe meantime, grain is king.
Grain dvs a steady stream of gold
from Elish Golfers. It flows through
the Chgo banks and enables them
to mahin their integrity, and keep.
busy We banks in other cities, that
do notxport grain, are abashed and
idle, an evidence that the strength
of thdhicagO banks is of this foreign
and seial nature we point to the utter
prostion of her great lumber in
teresI. Chicago has two vast interests.
One lumber (by far the most profit
ablef the two), the other is grain.
Eneh capital does not want Chicago's
lum7', so the lumber interest dies.
FnSh capital does want Chicago's
ora so the grain interest lives. It
ssfn ai lives, but such a boasting is
DOLBY the Chicago press over the fact
That does live, that a novice would
snlose every interest in the city were
edlly alert. However, grain is king,
a1Chicag0 is that kings capital. Not
III Chicago is the best capital the
* could select, by any means, any
re than Washington is the best
dital the nation can have; but it is
ire, and st. Louis fully realizes that
AnOve either one of them will be o
( job. But the former will be ac-
mplishe6 in time, as sur as the
brld stands. The great water route is
! everlasting as the hills, and in time
le improvements which Congress will
. compelled to provide for, and the
leulties which the necessities of COM
will call into being, will win the
ay for it, and St. Louis will become
re great grain distributor Of the con-