The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1877-07-19
LUCK OF TEXAS IN THE WARS
IN EUROPE.

LUCK OF TEXAS IN THE WARS
IN EUROPE.
Our dispatches of yesterday told of
the presence in the Northwest of agents
Of the French and German govern
ments buying grain for European
armies. We are also told Of the decisive
check given Russian armies in Asia
and their withdrawal from Armenia.
These facts may have terrible sIgnii-
canoe in Europe. France and Germany
contemplate conflict infinitely more
terrible than that which made Germany
foremost OF European powers, and TINS
disaster to Russia only prolongs strug
gle demanding each day greater drafts
upon the mechanical and agricultural
resources of the United States. Was
there ever such a concatenstion OF for
tunate events-fortunate if We be
wholly selfish. Never were such crops
produced in the United States; never
was there such limi.less demand for
American products in Europe. The
demand is as 9rasplng and voracious
and Unsuitable as the supply is bound
less. How unfortunate for Texas that
we have only indirect intercourse with
the Old World! European qus1ter-
masters aud commissaries and ordnance
officers know nothing Of Texas. France
gathering in dried sweet potatoes
sliced and dried like pumpkins and
canned for her nervous, excitable
armies-has never learned that Texas
grows the wheat that is most nutri
tious, that withstands best the action
OF moisture and tina in the holds of
merchantmen, and because of ignorance
of these facts French and German buy
ers exhaust each day and week the
markets of Eastern cities. Is it not
strange that they never enter the grain
markets of Texas! They could secure
here earlier wheat, and that weighing
one-eighth more per bushel, and CIV
ing bread onc-cighth more nutritious.
A soldier can convey more in less space,
and live OnC-eishth longer on the con-
tents OF haversacks. But commerce
has its bratcn, accustomed paths. Its
difficult to divert it from old channels,
and France and Germany and Russia
are buying wheat and begetting steady
advances in prices of breadstuffs, never
dreaming that Texas, by the seashore,
where costly railway transportation i
the least possible, has superabun-
dance, not only of beef and bacon, but
of bread. The excess of cereals has
not been accurately estimated. In ex
treme southern counties, whcre people
used to think wheat and oats and bar
ley would be destroyed by vertical
sun, the grain crop is simply unprece-
dentcd. Mr.. Robert Hubbard, not far
from Bastrop, and citizens of Guada-
lupe and of Colorado, and of counties
further south, where sugar-cane and
cotton were deemed peculiar products
of the chocolate colorcd or black allu-
viunl, concur in stating that the richest
crops of grain ever grown bless planters.
People were saying everywhere that
there would De no adequate uCmaud
for corn and wheat and oats. Hogs
became valuable simply because grain
was deemed va!ueless, and farmers
proposed to convert corn into beef and
bacon and whisky. But there need be
no hot haste III this direction. Russia
| is only balked in the Balkans and stag
| gered in the advance into Armenia.
The war is prolonged lndeii- igely,
other conflicts seem to be impending,
and the crops and cattle and gun
powder and material of war furnished
Europe in twelve months may enrich
the farming populations of the United
S ates and eXtinsuish American bones
held by Europe. The balance of in
debtedness, as of trade, must be speed
ily in our favor, and as the country
prospers even so must the several
States and individual citizens of these
States. May we not absolutely find in
the probable events here anticipated an
easy solution of the problem which
Mr. Secretary Sherman undertakes to
solve2 Will this coming bal
ance of trade, 50 fortunate fol
the United States, enable the
government more readily than wal
imagined to approach specie payment
II it be possible, and no further hard
ship may be imposed, by all means lei
US have 1t; but not at the cost of thii
impending universal bankruptcy. tt
what extent the country may be re
lieved of the pressure of hare
times and of Indebtedness to Europe
by purchases of supplies for Europe il
or markets, remains to be seen. WI
only regret the fact that European ig
norance Of the South and the indirect
ness, through New York, of SoutherI
intercourse with Europe, cause buyer
of supplies for European armies Il
purchase the meanest wheat and bee
at the highest prices, and in Chicag'
instead of Galveston. Is there NJ
remedy While deploring these fact
let US not forget that the relief OF tn
Northwest is the relief of the South
Chicago and st. Louis cannot be ag
grandized without miuistering to tn
prosperity and enriching the wheat ant
cattle growing people of Texas.
BE HONEST AND FEARLESS, AM
: DARE TO DO RIGHT.