The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-06-25
AXPohTS and ~IKFORTS - DOMESTIC
MANUFdCTURES
IN. Y. SUM-

| cradle attention both here and abroad.
We look upon it as one of the most cheer
| ing evidences of returning prosperity. IL
| is the natural result of the rigid system OF
economy practised throughout the land
| for q period of nearly three years, com
bined with the abundant crops of the last
| four years, which have enabled us to in
crease our expectations. The dimipished
| consumption of foreign gOOds denotes an
| actual saving to the country at large,
total decrease IN imports during the period
Of depression. THE saving will go far to.
wards bringing about q general revival OF
trade and restoring our various industries
to their won.ed activity.
1t is objected by one of our contempt
rariee, who mixes up religion and political
economy in a very curions manner. that
we do not benefit ourselves by ipjuring
our neighbore." While we have never
beard the theory advanced in this part of
the world, if we cross the water and ex-
anime the history of Eogland, the " neigh
Dor " more especially referred to, we find
a succession Of wars for trade, a continual
and steady warfare upon all the nations of
the earth, for preventing in other countries
the growth of that domestic commerce
whose advantages Adam Smith SO greatly
desired to impress upon his own country
men. One hundred years ago the cotton
gin, the steamship, the railroad, the tele.
graph, the reaping, sowing, and mod
ern printing machines, and numerous other
inventions of scarcely less vaiue to our
business and happiness, were entirely un
known. In all this vast territory of the
United States manufactures scarcely exile
ted even in name. In those halcyOn days,
when we were under exclusive British COO
troll, all our wants in the way of manufac
tured goods we're supplied by the mother
country. 1t was since the beginning of the
present century that Great Britain, furn
jshed by Watt and Arkwright with the
means of Woodworking the world, deiiber-
ately crushed out the man ufactures of India,
for the purpose of creating and maintain
ing q market for English cottons among
a population numbering now two hundred
aud forty millions, being greater than that
of all Europe, if Russia 10 omitted. How
admirably she has succeeded is told in the
total humiliation of cotton manufactures
throughout the region of country extend
ing from Bonn bay, to Bokhara, from Smyr-'
ma to Ssmsrcand, with ruin unparalleled
in the annals of commerce. This surely was
no apart of the scheme of the Creator" to
which our contemporary 30 piously allu6es.
The extraordinary effect produced in our
country by resort to diversiied occupa
tions has built up market for the prod ucts
of fertile lands distant from the seaboard
and from the foreign markets of the world.
The American system oflocating various and
extensive manufactures next to tho plough
and the pasture, and adding connecting
railroads and steamboats,, has produced in
our distant interior regions a result notice
able by the intelligent portion of all COM
mercial countries. 1t is owing to this sys-
TEN, which has greatly developed our
agricultural, mineral, and industrial
sources, that this nation finds itself enabled
to contribute largely to the commerce of
the world, and more especially to furnish
Great Britain go prOfusely with the things
she most needs. There were in 1870 more
1e So ka TInSk
States engaged in manufactures, produc
ing more than two billion one hundred
million d9llars of products itn amount an
Duaiiy, o sum nearly equal to our national
debt. During this last year the cotton
here converted into cloth has amounted
to no less than COG, DOC, 900 pounds OF
the cloth thus produced, the export was
email, and 30 was the import of foreign
cottons, the balance either way being un-
i'm portant. The consumption by our own
forty three millions of people may there
fore be taken at six hundred million
average of probably fifty yards, for every
man, woman, and child in the Union that
too, in a period of no serious commercial
crisis. Meantime the quantity of cotton
worked up in Great Britain for the supply
Of her thirty three millions Of people and
her foreign markets all over the world was
but little more than double the quantity act
ually consumed here, say 224 DOC, OOU
pounds. OF this cotton India furnished
%, OOo. 900 pounds the equivalent of little
over half million American bales, while
the United States substantially furnished
the remainder. Nearly every pound of raw
material-silk, fax, hemp, jute, wool, cot
Concentrating into the composition of Brit
| ish textiles exported has been brought from
distant countries TO be paid for to foreign
planters and farmers. SO, too, with great
part, at least fifty per cent, of the wheat,
the cheese, the eggs, the poultry, and other
| food consumed by the men who work mp
such materials. England draws largely on
France for food and certain products, as
will be seen when we state that the exports
of France 20 England in the first three
month"; of the current year amounted to
$50, 600 GOO; those of Great Britain to
France to Sie, OOO, 900. The declared value
of British produce and manufactures
exported was in millions of dollars, as fol-
lows:
lsT0.--..--....1,9so ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 900
1879 ,9T5 1875 4, 50