Wilmington journal., 1874-01-16
VOL. 80.
wu,NINGTON-S NEED.

Commenting upon the vast export
business OF Wilmington, as exhibited
bv our An ual Export Table, we ex-
pressed the opinion that We made POOR
usc of the advantages Which We pos
sassad. 4 friend who is careful and
correct il, all his calculations SAYS that
We under estimated the value Of the
exports Of this city by two millions of
dollars at least. We were more de-
s;rous OF being within than beyond INC
correct amount, VIXEN VIC yasIed the
expo-ts at eight millions of dollars.
This vast AMOUNT ofproduceia h:-ndled
here. The commission, the wharfage,
the storage. the drayage. the loading,
Of this eight Oh ten I2:lh"ns ot dollars
&C produce must necessarily leave a
large amount OF money in this city.
And again: the owners Of one half
~ this ten millions Of dollars Of pro-
auce trade directly or indirectly III
Wilmington. The labor necessary to
prod,lce five millions Of dollars T11n&t
Consume large amount u stores.
Orr Wholesale and retail dealers con-
seouently handle much Of this money.
It must be recoliected also that
these articles represent new wealth.
money made By the producer. Inose
EIGHT or ten millions cf dollars are
brought here to purchase articles laew
:. the corllmorcc ef iIe country, AID
are left in Tie hands oi tie producers,
exccnt such AS 20 to oar own people
70 pay for supplies anl fertilizers, ard
the nece8saries Of life. Even ii the6o
take the entire mount received, still
.,lr own traders and merchants handle
Il and receive their legitimate profits
Then what is the reason that money
j. 10. more abundant Why Is It that
greater prosperity and population does
lot follow from our vast trade: 1t
seems TO lis to be very PLAIN. We
chip the raw material. We lnanufac-
ture almost nothing. With tho single
exception OF the Navassa Guano Com
pany we have no considerable manu-
factory IN our midst. We believe we
are safe in estimating the n1anutac-
lures Of our city last year at less than
one million of dollars. We handle,
and store, and haul, and load the pro-
ducts OF our farmers, but we send
them off for others to convert
into manufactured goods and pay them
q handsome profit for their work, be-
sides the double freight.
Richmond, which boasts "f a pros
perity almost unparalleled III the his
tory Of Southern cities. reports tor
last year an aggregate OF nearly fifteen
millions Of dollars Of manufactured
goods.
inst here is our weakness. While
everv other industry and enterprise is
encouraged and fostered, our citizens
have entirely neglected manufacture
Companies are organized TOR almost
everything else but this- Associations
for erecting dwellings and stores, for
loaning money, for building street
railroads, for establishing banks, foror-
ganizing insurance companies, for car
rying on cooperative stores, are -four
ishingi in o1r midst, but motor to bnlld
factories. II the Building Associa-
tions had been utilized for the estah-
hshment Of factories we would not
hear of meetings being called to put
a limit to their existence, but the wealth
and population they would add to our
CITY, and the returns which the,' wouli
make, directly nnI Indirectly, to their
stockholders, would renderth them ropu-
lar and useful institutions.
Wilmington needs factories and
those who first supply them will he
public bcnefactOTs.