Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-09-11

De8SLS are maze lEgo l6dLner ana J0en
into shoes and harness; the yield of
our mines is converted into iron In its
different useful forms; our Goals are
carried into the great !marts for sale
and to be used in mills-in propelling
the locomotive, the sea and river-going
ships, and for the comfort of man.
Our people engage in all these forms
Of labor, and by that labor create new
values.
II, then, in the distribution of the
burthens that must rest upon labor
there shall be inequalities, as sometimes
is the case; if the tax upon a particu.
lar production be greater or less than
that laid upon another production, or,
what is the same thing, if in fixing the
rates Of customs duties a class of ar
ticles, brought from other countries, be
required to pay a higher duty than
another class. in order that particular
industry in which a portion of our
people have engaged shall not be COM
PEELED to compete in our own markets
with the same industry as conducted
by another people, it is obvious that a
bounty is offered by the Government
to those who may engage in the par
ticular pursuit, and that this bounty is
paid by the whole body of the people;
at all events, by that number of them
who, either constrained by necessity or
led by their tastes and inclinations,
shall buy at higher price the articles
upon which the tax is laid. This pur-
suit, whatever it may be, becomes a
favored one, protected by the Govern
ment against competition; and its
profits are, or rather may be, increased
in the ratio of the bounty paid.
l will suppose: that ten Of you, gen.
tlemen, by your hard labors, have ac-
cumulated capital that you wish to
invest in such manner as to secure from
it an income. You have met here to-
day to consider in what manner it shall
be employed. l assume that you wish
to add your own labor, or the labor of
others, to the productiveness of this
capital, and so without more you decline
to invest it in bonds of any kind.
You have then your choice to buy
a farm and till it by your labor and
the labor of your sons and others you
may employ, or you may undertake to
mine for coal and transport it for sale
to some Of the great centres of popu-
lation. You may spin cotton yarns
and weave them into cloth; or make
the ores from your mountains into the
varied and useful forms that modern
civilization demands.
Now, when considering how to EN-.
ploy this capital, it would be unwise in
you to neglect to take into view what
is now, or may become, the policy of
your Government in respect to its in
ternal taxation and Customs duties +;
for it isapparent that this policy would
or might affect not only the profits to
accrue from the capital itself, but also
the profit or wages TO be received for
youl labor.
And again; before investing all
your capital in the purchase of machin-
cry fitted to the production of partic-
ular commodity, would you not, as
prudent men, be forced to consider for
how long the Government will continue
to carry out its present policy?
Hence / say that, in considering the
important question of how We shall
employ the little capital we possess,
and to what pursuits We shall direct
our energies, l feel greatly constrained.
For it is not expected, or indeed desired,
that l shall enter upon the domain of
politics and upon every side the sub
iects am to discuss are environed by
these so-called political, but really
economic questions.
With this explanation, l will pro-
coed as best may.