The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-08-29
For the VIRGINIAN.]
In How Far will the Treaty Of Berlin at
20 ~

The few sea pent up millions that with resist
less energy burst their narrow bonds colonised
and gave life to a new world on this side the At
lantic, invented new and gigantic home in the
Australian ocean, seized and held in the teeth OF
all Europe the most advantageous points in that
Europe's majestic island sea, put down the an
cient, but cruel satrapsy of Hindoostan and gave
that splendid peninsula for the first time just
and benifcent rule. But a year or two ago, a
weighty tongue dared to speak of Great Britain
as FINISHED Power" Now the world owns that
great as she already is, she is but at the com
mencement of a career that has new err yet been
equaled in the worlds history.
As all the world knows, Great Britain has now
assumed and entered upon the protectorate, OF
the Turkish Empire in Persia. That protector
ate, as hitherto in the East, simply means annex
alton to the British Empire. The British flag now
waves over Cyprus, and already has an army Oh
engineers and surveyors left England to. make
the necessary surveys for the great proposed
railway from the shores of the Levant 10 the Per-
sian gulf.
This railway, which will be upwards of 1000
long, will pass almost for it's entire length, down
the fertile vallies of the Tygris and Euphrates,
opening up new markets for British manufacture
ers, and yielding in return large supplies of
grain cotton, tobacco and other agricultural pro-
duets for which this great valley has from the
earliest antiquity been so famous. And even
this is not all: shorter communication will thus
be opened to Northwest India and q more extern
ded trade and commerce be thereby developed
| At the present time, England, purchases from
the United States very large proportion of the
| wheat, corn and tobacco which she imports.
| few years ago she did the same with cotton, now
| the bulk of the cotton manufactured by her,
comes from her own dependencies.
The United States is essentially an agricultural
and not manufacturing country, and this espe-
cially with reference to the Southern and Western
| States.
| Southern and Western products will find new
| competitors in British markets in the now being
developed East, and most assuredly it behooves
| us to put ourselves in the most favorable state
| possible to meet this competition.
| We all know that, if railway or steamboat
carries goods only one way, these goods must pay
double the freights they otherwise should. Ow
ing to the high productive duties charged by the
| q. s. Government, British manufacturers are
| almost prohibited here, and as necessary conse
| quence carried only one way, every pound OF oul
| cotton, our wheat, our corn, our tobacco and oul
pork pays double the freight that it otherwise
| should. The half OF that double freight ough
and should be in the pockets of the farmers ant
| planters.
Our clothing, our hardwa are, our tools, imple
ments SC. should also be considerably cheaper
And all this prohibition and protection is don'
to benefit Comparatively speaking) few manu-
| featuring firms in the North.
trust and hope that the day is not far distan
when the farmers and planters will make the dis
covery that dollars worth Of wheat, OF corn, O.
tobacco, or cotton, or pork is exactly equal il
| value to dollar worth Of British manufacture
| And when they shall have made this discovery
| they will strike off the letters from trade AM
production, and by single vote OF the Legisla
| ture, increase the national wealth, no one cal
foresee how many fold, and thus this vast and al
producing country, commanding both ocean
and placed midway between Europe and Asia,c cal
| put to defiance the threatened competition o
| Asiatic markets, and become as nature designe
| her to become-the hub OF the world. H. S.