Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-06-01
Waiting for the Crops.

IL is amusing W ISdu SuSA OA'hAN'S ~
the following from such a staunch-
monopolists' organ as the Philadelphia
Press
1.-The country has got to the end of its
rope and waits for the actual increase TO
the worlds production which comes
from our fields before taking fresh
start
In other words the Press means to say
the home market for manufactures is
heavily stocked, and we must wait until
the worlds demands upon the yield of
or fields can be again satisfied ere the
normal state of affairs can be restored.
The balance of trade is against US, and this
condition of affairs can be changed only
by large exports of cotton and bread
stuffs which must first be raised. Thus
the country is again made aware that,
after all, it is not the craftsmanship of
parties but the reward of the labors of
the farmer which has most to do with our
prosperity. The falling OF in the wheat
product last year cut down our exports
$50 600, 900; the short cotton crop cut
off $42, 900, 900 more, and these figures
cover nearly the whole of the de-
crease in exports. The necessity
of bountiful crops this year is therefore
made apparent, and in consequence their
progress is watched with unwonted in
terest. The outlook for wheat is reck-
oned good. The weather of the coming
month will largely decide the prospects
of corn, cotton, and smaller crops,
though the outlook for corn and cotton
are at present reckoned fair. At least
two, and, perhaps, three months yet
must elapse, however, before decided
change comes, and business must remain
in allegiance for the spur of the foreign
demand ere il regains its usual pace.
Meanwhile it is instructive to note the
discomfort now prevailing among the
great mills and factories, fostered by
legislation, where thousands of opera
tives have to toll from day to day, con-
tent, perhaps, with the reward they re-
ceive when business is active, but when
over-production. the inevitable result of
protection, sets in, forced to submit to
lower wages. In vain at such times do
the laborers complain that their reduced
pay will not afford them the means of
living. Protected capital replies
that present profits will not
warrant higher wages, and so the
workman is allowed the alternative
either to submit to a reduction and
struggle along as best he may, or give
the employer a desired excuse for shut
ting up his mills until the pressure in his
crowded warehouses can be relieved
Thus the system of protection may yield
the workman a good living in seasons
of prosperity, but when, at length, over
production gluts the market, then he must
pinch himself and family to subsist.
The employer, however, when he pays
high wages, not only takes in heavy
profits, but is, at the same time, enabled
TO accumulate a surplus to tide him over
the season of dullness when it comes,
and prepare him to take in the heavy
profits atresh when the tide again tulns
Under all circumstances, then, it may
be seen that the only real protection af-
fOrded by the protective system is to the
capitalist, while to the deluded working
man it is but an ignis fatuus to lure him
on to trouble.
A lesson is being taught to labor now,
however, by which it may veil profit.
When the working man learns that CAPT
tai, no matter where invested, should
have none but just concessions or privi-
leges allowed it, and that labor is entitled
to no support in one sphere which is not
granted in another, he will see the un-
wisdom of a system which processes to
protect but does not, but which imposes
upon all except the few for whose special
benefit it was established heavy burden.
The home market of which the protec-
tiOnists so often speak is nothing more nor
less than so many usurers' offices, where
the unprotC cted are tieeced by the pro-
tected, and it is, after all, only the for.
eign demand for the unprotected pro-
ducts of the soil that enables the latter
to live and comply with the former s
exactiOns.