The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-06-05
-. u. ses is. sl9. s4a JIG. ID. be-.
Total

The above figures show a falling of in
| two years Of more than forty per cent. in
the total value OF the imports OF the artI-
cles named, and the course of trade 80 far
this year points to an additional decrease
Of great magnitude for 1876"
But look where We may we discover the
same phenomena. have within q week
seen an article from q Pittsburg paper,
which stated that more than eleven hun
bred houses in the cities Of Pittsburg and
Allegheny were without tenants, those
who had previously occupied them being
without employment and unable to pay
rent. In those two small cities eleven
hundred and odd houses tenantless
What a story that tells Of idle machinery
Plttsburg, that city Of which 1t has been
said ''She is ever under a cloud, but
never in adversely" The clouds of smoke
from her hundreds of FORCES, and furnaces,
and shops-that murky emblem Of prosper
ity-is less dense than it was, and many
miners of bituminous coal, with the men
that wrought in those busy establishments,
are idle, and other landlords than the own
ers Of the eleven hundred houses in Pitts
burg and Allegheny City fail to collect
their rent, though doubtless the tax col
lectors will, IN due season, call for their
contributions to the public revenues
What is the condition Of the South
The president Of bank in Macon, Ga,
with whom / recently travelled, assured
me that no man who would make cotton
this year would do it without loss He
said there were ten banks and banking
institutions in Macon, and that they were
unwilling to loan money to planters, or to
merchants who would advance to planters
that those who advanced money to planters
last year, on the faith of a certain price
on cotton, had sustained heavy losses, and
that some Of the leading merchants of Sa-
vannsh and Augusta had failed. How,
cir, said /, do you employ your capital
and deposits, if you will neither loan to
the planter nor the merchant r. "Well,"
sAid ne, there is only one investment we
regard as perfectly safe, and when we can
get it we are buying up our own stock.
They are contracting the banking facilities
because the condition Of Southern planting
and trading is such that cautious bankers
are unwilling to lend to their neighbors.
Again, l met q gentleman Of very great
intelligence, the owner of cotton factory,
which, unhappily, had burned down the
week before. | soon saw, from the way
he was treated, that he was q man of
character and influence. Sitting next to |
him could not help hearing his CONVEX |
sation. He spoke Of the distressing fail |
ures that had occurred il Savannah and |
Augusta, but turned and said 1--WE |
shall have more disastrous ones before |
next spring, that Ia, II our merchants |
make average advances" After q while |
fell into conversation with him. Introdu- |
cling myself as a Northern man who was |
for health, and DESTROYS of col |
lecting information. Among many other |
statements he made to me was this =
when We owned our labor we could make |
cotton and not sustain loss If we sold it at |
eight cents pound We could make
profit by selling at nine but when We
have to buy labor we cannot sell ct twelve |
without . loss. Indeed, said he, we
could not have made cotton under the |
new system, had we not discovered that by
the generous use of fertilizers We could
increase the crop 30 much that the in
creased product would pay the labor. But
now our planters are unable to purchase
fertilizers |; therefore, they viii cultivate
without fertiliEing, and will attempt to
pay wages from diminishsd crops, and gen.
eral bankruptcy must gprsvail."
found confirmation Of this statement