National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-01-08
PRACTICAL ECONOMY.

Inc party winch ldentlneS Itself with
the development Of the country will meet
with the favor of the people. Politicians
shrink from touching the question of Cheap
Transportation under the idea that re-
trenchment is a popular cry; but the path
to retrenchment lies in the cheapening of
the necessities of life, and in infusing new
activity into the business of the country.
Every avenue should be closed to the
wasteful expenditure of money by the
Government, and every dollar should be
stricken from the burden of taxation which
the Government can bear; but we shall
not bring any substantial relief to the
country by perpetuating restrictions on
our internal commerce, or by sinking mil
lions annually in the movement of our in
dustrial products from one point to another.
If we can bring down the prices of our
bread and our fuel, and the meat we con-
sumo and our iron, " e guarantee practi-
cal relief in those personal expenses which
bear so heavily at present on every house
hold in our land. We do not mean that
these commodities include all that is en-
braced in the aggregate Of family expendi-
ture which has become so much greater
than it was fifteen years ago. but they in
clude the major part, and kept within
bounds regulate the remainder. A far
mer may retrench by disseminating the
use of fertilizers and by reducing the num-
Der of his plOughs; but he wiz, hsB1<er,
ascertain that his receipts have unfinished
more rapidly than his expenditures, and as
his farm falls into neglect he will encoun-
ter increased embarrassment in maintain
ing his family.
If there is gold in the heart of the coun-
try, shall we withhold our hands from get
ting at it in order to live more economically?
If it could be demonstrated that gold and
precious stones lay in untold abundance in
the valley of the Mississippi, and only
needed the strong hand of the Government
to wrest them from their beds, would it be
an intelligent policy to say that we had
better let them alone just now because it
was a time to retrenchH IT. therefore. 1t
be true, and no one has denied it, that by
opening few channels of communication
$50, 900, 900 can be saved in one year on
the article of grain alone, is it any true
economy to pause in the Inauguration of
these great works? And if besides this,
while accomplishing so much, we add also
at once 81, 100, 900, 900 to the value of the
improved lands of eight States of the
Union, saying nothing of the unimproved
lands or of the remaining States, does it not
appear to be anything but retrsHchment to
leave these lands at their present value,
and at their present disadvantage with re-
gard to market?
All over the country we hear of Ian
gushing agriculture, and in all the States
of the Union the farmers are forming
themselves into associations which, with
one voice, are asking for relief. The tax
upon their products by the existing chan
nels of transportation is the great evil of
which they complain. Shall Congress say
to them, 1--WE cannot help you yet; you
must wait two, five or ten years longer?"
In the meantime, how many will have
been ruined, and how great sum will
have been sunk forever in the payment
of transportation charges which consume
a large portion of the profits of the pro-
Queer, while they constitute an equal drain
upon the consumer?
The Senate Select Committee on Trans
pertation Routes to the Seaboard have es-
timated Gas given above) the saving that
would result every year in the transporta-
ton of grain by improving the existing
waterways of the country or constructing
others. They have pointed out also that
we should thereby secure the command of
the grain markets of Western Europe, now
held by Russia, and secure the balance of
trade with Europe in our favor.
There are two other commodities the
price of which would be materially cheap
ened by the construction of one of these
lines, namely, coal and iron. The mineral
wealth of Virginia and West Virginia
seems to grow the more the subject is in.
vestigated. Iron in fabulous quantity and
ores of the rarest quality have been dis.
covered in a wide belt between Albemarle,
Buckingham, Nelson and Amherst coun.
ties, Virginia, and the western boundary
of the State Tin Botetourt Rockbridge,
Allegheny, &C., We are told by PROBES
sor Austed, of England, in his testimony
before the Senate Committee, that the
mining of these ores "can be done at q
"less cost than in any part of the world
" which have ever visited" and that
"the cost Of manufacturing the best quail.
" ties of iron which ought to be made from
cores of such very high values would not