New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-10-29
OUR FOREIGN POLICY.

great deal of old stuff. 1t is very diff
cult to interest a ma n in a case which has
been settled by the highest tribunal, and
the mind will wander when required to
| fix itself on the Wilmot proviso or the
deposit act.
! We can not see why the currency ques-
| ton should have been held responsible
for the market price Of produce or real
estate. The one is valued in foreign
markets, and the other varies so much IN
different localities that it's value can not
be supposed to depend on a common
| cause.
We lave said that the office of currency
is not what it was when the question OF
\ national finance was paramount. Cur
rency then moved all the produce and
property in the Union. There was de-
mand for uniform currency which could
be carried from State to State. Modern IA
cilities of mail and telegraph have so per-
fected the transfer of credits that COM
modities may be bought and sold without
exhibition of currency at all When the
amount of currency is not ten per cent OF
the aggregate values of the commerce
within and among the States and foreign
countries, we may allow it any capacity to
change hands over and over again, but
this will not account for the commerce on
domestic and foreign bills, and the i'm
mense transactions in bank credits and
bank checks.
That we have an over production in
produce and manufactures, is beyond
question. 1t is proven by the stagnation
and even refux of Western immigration.
1t is confirmed by the strikes and stagna-
ton of the Eastern States. The decline
of real estate in New York tends to prove
the same assertion.
What is the cause of this plethora Of
production? The great stimulus which
has been impaired to the growth of pro-
visions in the West, and manufactures
everywhere, by the importation of raw
and skilled labor from Europe. The
United States has but one principal mar
ket for grain. 1t may send from fifty to
eighty millions of bushels to England,
but what is that for production of two
billions of bushels, with a capacity for
production only limited by the immigrant
labor applicable? With the effect of high
farming in England, and the agricultural
development of northern Europe, under
the railroad system, the demand for
American provisions can not be depended
on, nor can the production of cereals be
remunerative at an increased distance
from the foreign market.
As for sending our manufactures to
Europe for a market, no one has proposed
more than to maintain our own work.
shops by heavy revenue protection, and
the cost of importing tire competing an
ticle.
With old issues too effete to divide
parties and with an admitted over pro-
duction of provisions for the foreign
market and of manufactures for the home
market, what relief can be expected for
this arrest of business progress and for
this general discomfort? This is ques-
ton of great moment to the Republican
administration, because the incumbents
of Office are always held responsible for
any want Of prosperity in the community
which they govern.
The meaning of over production is
want of market, for it is obvious that so
long as there is compensating demand
for any product of industry, that produc-
ton will continue and even increase.
The United States is not the only coun-
try that suffers from that cause. The
English manufacturer, merchant and cap
italist complain of the same thing. Since
the depression of American corporate
credit, England has surplus of active
capital. She has deficiency of demand
for her manufactures. The rate of the
Bank of England was, in August last,
lower than it had ever been, and loans
might be negotiated from private capital
lists at less than two per cent per annum.
What is the remedy of England for this
plethora of manufactures? Increased de-
velopment of demand in India, China and
Africa. The annexation of new territory
on the coast and in the interior of Africa.
We may notice that all manufacturing and
commercial States, from Tyre and Garth
age to Amsterdam and London, have
planted colonies and opened commerce
with distant nations. Even Russia, as
she develops and domesticates the great
industrial interests of civilization, turns
to the tropics as basis of commercial ex-
change. Her access to a tropical COM
merce being obstructed at the Bosphorus,
she advances by the Amoor, and she may
yet find the Ganges serve her purpose
better than the Nile.
Discouraged by the result OF many rail-
road and other corporate investments in
the United States, we have seen elaborate
and authentic inquiries made by British
capitalists as to the safety and profit OF
private investments in real estate, mines
and water powers in the United States,
| <lo