The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-06-09

WI VI 0he present year the Increase
III manufactures exported amouts to
oo ooo,00o of francs over the same
period in 1874, and the increase in ae-
rlcultural products and raw materials
exported to 100000 of francs.-
Some of the details here are curious
Eggs are not commonly thought of as
great article of commerce. tboucb
the good people of Ohio have cause
to know their value. But France ex-
ported during the first quarter of
1875 100000 of francs worth of
eggs, principally to England, and 49,
ooo,oOO OF francs worth of butter
On the other hand, instead of impor
ting 7o,OO0,000 of francs worth of
grain as she did in the first quarter
ofJS74, she exported 42,OOO.O0o of
francs worth, and in her turn export
ed o3,U0O,GO0 of francs worth of her
own grain, instead of 100000 as
in 1879. We do not know how far
the condition Of things in Cuba may
have affected the French sugar in
terest; but it is notable that France,
which before 1870 had never export
ed more than 100000 francs worth
of crude sugar in Il quarter, in the
first qusrter of the present year has
exported 100000 of francs worth.
lfnow we turn to the internal as
poets of the country, the symptoms
are not less astonishing. The i'm
portations into France from January
to April amounted to 51,OOO.O00 of
francs, figure never reached before
the war, and made up1-observe this
point mainly Of raw Materials
Within her own borders, meanwhile
her production of steel has increased
between 1869 and 1874 from l,O47,-
600 to 2,2l0,000 quintals, or in other
words has more than doubled itself;
and her collieries, which in 1869
yielded only 100000 quintals
yielded in 1874 170,0OO,0sO. The
taxes yielded during the first quar-
ter of 1875 100000 of francs more
than it had been estimated they
would yield. The weekly traffic on
the chief railway lines has generally
increased over last years figures, and
i'll several cases as much as 16 per
cent, and the shares of such lines as
the Great Northern, the Lyons, the
Orleans, the Western, Southern, and
Eastern railways are at the same fig
ures on the Exchange as before the
war, although the railroad dividends
untaxed before the war are taxed
now.
In. the face Of facts like these, we
repeat, it is not surprising that those
who looked to see the peace of Eu-
rope assured by the decay and de-
struction of one of the greatest of
European powers, should grow rest
less and uncomfortable. But cooler.
heads may take comfort from the
consideration that the commercial
and financial greatness and growth of
France are quite likely in the end to
prove better and more trustworthy
guarantees of European order, S
we'll as of European progress, than
her decline an d impoverishment
would ever have been. That her
prosperity is the happiest augury for
the success of the great republican
experiment she is making we need
not say, and Americans at least will
be slow to believe that peace has as
much to hope from the preponder-
ance in the Old World of a military
monarchy armed to the teeth and
ruled by an autocratic will as from
the example of a great nation organ
lied upon the principles of self-gov-
eminent, and administered in the
spirit of liberty. Nor is it of slight
Importance to ourselves to remember
that the immense industrial impulse
which has been accomplishing such
marvels, both social and political, for
France devastated by an imperial
war, was communicated to her people
by the simple process of loosening
the swaddling-bands of Protection
within which for generations her en-
ergies had been pinioned and confined.
IN. Y. World.
The Independent does not seem