The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-13
FREE TRADE AND FREE MARKETS.

The DEMOCRAT has never urged upon
the crowded centres Of the North that
the ''only solution" of the labor trou-
bles was the emigration of their surplus
population. We thought we saw
another and more hopeful remedy than
this. which was merely tantamount to
advising these unemployed multitudes
to Hee from the evils they endure for
those they wot not Of. While we have
shown the need Of labor here in the
South, and the employment our cotton
fields would supply. we have insisted
that more material and widespread
benefits would result from the correc-
ton OF the abuses which had caused the
trouble than from any such partial and
purely temporal remedy as this diver
sion of unemployed labor from the
cities to the mere grubbing from the
ground OF the necessities Of life could
afford
There was something humiliating to
us In such advice-that political econo-
my. which made pretensions to sci
ence, based on the most rigid statistics,
and which had engaged the intellectual
enthusiasm of the first minds Of the
world, could in such an emergency find
no better solution OF troubles that have
occurred to all nations than to refer the
people back to the conditions OF savage
and pastoral life as the only escape from
starvation.
Even the party creed to which we
held, and whose doctrines furnished the
web and wool of our political convic-
tons. based upon experiences which
comprehended no such exigency as is
now upon US, but which always sought
intelligently to avoid 1t. forbade our &C.
ceptance Of any such idea. The VIOLA
ton Of the first principles OF this creed
has been the source Of our woes, and we
have but to return to and re-establish
them to recover the prosperity that has
been lost by the operation Of no natural
and universal law, but only by bad and
unwise legislation, which has endeav-
ored to usurp power which is inherent
in trade and commerce, and to supply
the purely fictitious incentive OF protec-
ton for the natural and healthy one Of
demand.
The result Of these laws has been to
restrict our production to our home
markets, to keep up prices here on an
arbitrary basis, established not by de-
mand, but by the cost Of production.
They have raised about us Chinese
wall, which has shut us and our produc-
tions from the world not less effectively
than it has shut the products of other
nations from US. Their operation has
been mutually destructive, and the
sword we sharpsned for our defense has
proven to be two-edged.
Crippled as our manufactures have
been since 1873, statistics yet prove that
our production of manufactured goods
Is largely In excess Of our consuming
power. In support Of this statement
we reproduce the following statistics
from paper by j. s. Moore, the
"Parsee Merchant" read to the Social
Science Association, recently in con-
vention at Saratoga.
In 1880 our nome mHuuitcluFeTS produced Si4
per capita. In 1860 the production was $57 rs
per capita and in 1870 the amount Of produc-.
ton rose to more than Sill per capita; and
have no doubt that at this moment our produe-
ton of manufactured goods. even ii 80 per
centum less than in 1870 Is still from SIS to $50
per capita. Now it is well known that coun-
try when prosperous has at least % or 30 per
centum more consuming power than when the
times are hard. Thus 1t naturally follows that
our power of producing manufactured goods
has outgrown by some 80 or 40 per centum our
power of consumption, and this immense over
production has comparatively little. outlet
Statistics supply us with fac S in support OF this
proposition. In 1860 wnen our manufacturing
production. exclusive of all kinds Of agricul-
tural produce and of the precious metals was
about 81 800 900 000 we exported $50 OG0 worth
of manufactures. while in 1877, when our manu-
featuring production was. say at the lowest cal
culal ION nearly $4,000. ,o00 we exported only
| SIS. 0o0. 900 worth of manufactures.
Thus our industry is clogged, and in
this fact we see the secret Of all the
poverty, distress and idleness in the
land and the disturbances that have re-
suited therefrom. Is it not strange that
our statesmen cannot see the true