The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-10-01
OUR FOREIGN TRADE.

L
tive OF the beauties of our tariff system
and the incalculable injury 1t operates
to American commerce. Take, for ex-
ample, those Of our trade in cotton, and
while we see our looms and spindles
idle and labor unemployed because the
people cannot afford to pay the fictitious
prices created by this so-called protec-
| ton, but without which the spinners
cannot afford to carry on their enter
prises, they show that our exports have
increased scarcely at all, while our i'm
ports yet remain more than double in
value the goods sent out OF
the country to foreign markets.
The value OF our imports for the seven
months ending with July was $l4,610,-
600. while the value Of the exports was
only $6,703,00O. What q different story
would be told were our spinners relieved
from this so-called protection, regard
ing which our people, happily for them
selves, are rapidly reaching but one
conclusion. Some of the finer fabrics
we shall doubtless continue to import.
but In a few years, relieved from these
unwise and burdensome restrictions, we
should be able to increase the exports
OF our more substantial fabrics until our
manufacturers would occupy position
corresponding to that heretofore held
by British manufacturers in the great
markets Of Asia and South America.
II our trade was left to the control Of
its own natural laws. unembarrassed by
meddlesome and unwise legislation,
there is no reason why this should be
accomplished, and every reason why We
should entirely supplant all foreign
manufacturers in all the markets Of the
world. We have more labor than can be
given employment, indeed 80 large
surplus as to create serious alarm and
anxiety as to how its demands for bread
shall be met; we produce the raw ma
terial In the greatest abundance, and In
quality 1t Is entirely superior to any
produced elsewhere, and it has not to
be transported across seas to the spin
ners. We have more power Of the
cheapest kind than would be necessary
to drive all the spindles In the world.
These reasons all apply with special
force to the South, and they supply
every argument why the manufacture
OF our staple would, under healthful
laws of trade, be more remunerative
here than anywhere else. But there is
another consideration even greater than
these for the establishment in the South
of these factories, and that is the util-
ization Of great deal Of labor that is
now comparatively idle. whose work
could be made to contribute very ma
terially to the common support Of their
allude to the women and
children. There Is an attachment for
cotton gins, invented and manufactured,
we believe, by q gentleman at Meri.
dian, Miss, by which the seed cot
ton that is placed In the gin comes
out OF the attachment as yarn.
This attachment can be run by one or
two small darkies, and one to every gin
stand could give work to all the children
on a plantation that now cannot be
and never have been. On every
place there are also some old men and
women who are incapacitated for field
work, and all these drones could be made
to earn their bread by this simple at
tachment. The same argument applies
with even more force in our cities
and towns, and to the establishment
~ Pon Aoain Uni a
favorably situated than England to
command the markets Of the world.
Mexico, the West Indies, South and
Central America, all large buyers OF
cotton fabrics, lie right at our doors,
and we can sell more favorably to them
If we will only get rid Of the tariff which
forbids exchange, the true source Of all
trade, and buy of them. We are also
more accessible to Japan and China,
and even in India we are beginning to
sell our wares. Our goods are better
than the English, and this is beginning
to be found out by nations that knew
nothing Of them a few years back, and
the English themselves admit this.
AS we have often said, the only bar
rier to our competition with other ma
tions, not in this particular manufac-
ture, but in all others, is this system
which is called protection. We put
tariff on imports Of cotton goods to pro-
tect the spinner, but we also tax iron
and steel, machinery, sugar, and every
thing that contributes to the living Of the
workman and the making Of the ma
chinery that spins the cotton. By 30
doing we increase the cost Of production
and necessitate the payment Of larger
wages that the operative may live, and
80 that which is called protection in the
end becomes a most grievous burden.