Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-02-10

land are brought under the plough.
So with manufactures. Surprising
all competitors in the abundance
and convenience of raw material,
and in the invention and use of me
chinery, it is not easy to imagine
limit to our capacity for productions
in any of the great machine-using
industries. Indeed, it is a we'll
known fact that in these industries
and in some others our existing plant
is more than equal to the demands
of our own consumption. If, for
years to come, we should build no
more mills and factories, and put no
more furnaces into blast; if we
should make no more improvements
in machinery or in methods of pro-
ducing, we should not overtax our
present equipment, working con-
stantly with the full complement of
hands.
With this capacity for producing
so much in excess of our need, what
is the indispensable condition of the
prosperity and growth of both farm
ing and manufacturing? Plainly,
and beyond controversy, more mar
kets; which is but another name for
more foreign commerce. Napoleon
once said, very aptly and truly:
"Foreign commerce represents Su-
perabundance, and good employment
for Agriculture and Manufactures. :"
The superabundance of one people
exchanged for the superabundance
Of other peoples or those who produce
it find no profitable return for
their labor; and foreign commerce
is the only channel through which
that exchange can be made. To-
day, however, there are two ways of
dealing with surplus, whether it
be of farm products or factory pro-
ducts. The profitable and natural
way, as stated by Napoleon, is to
find vent for it into markets where
it may be disposed of at paying prices.
The artificial and lately perfected
way, little known in the days of
Napoleon, is to reduce productions
to the remunerative demands of the
home market. The farmer cannot
choose between these two ways. He
cannot, by any scheme of combina-
ton, or any foresight of weather
and seasons, or of the various pests
that ravage his crops, estimate in adj
vance how many acres he must plant
in grain, cotton, tobacco and other
things to meet the paying demand
Of the home consumers. He must
look for prosperity, not through small
sales at artificial or law-made prices
in the markets of his own country
only, but through the largest posi-
bic sales in all markets. Foreign
trade is, therefore, the sole present or
future dependence of the American
farmer for getting rid of his "super-
abundance" and for good employ
ment; that is, for good return for
his labor.
But in the United States we deal
with foreign trade as with threat
ening pestilence, hold it at quaran-
tine, and admit it to the country
under all manner of vexatious and
oppressive burdens.
When, however, the farmer sends
his surplus products to the only mar
kets he can find for them-and it's
the same to him whether he takes
them himself or sells to some mid
dleman at the door Of his graneries
and makes profitable exchange Of
those products for things that other
people are willing to trade for them,
things that he needs and must have,
he is arrested on his return with the
avail of his crops; he is fined upon
most of them at rates that run from
fourth or half to the full amount
of their value-what are those heavy
fines but so much of his years labor
taken from him by the strong arm Of
his government, not to meet it's one
wants, but to satisfy the demand of
those who claim the right to sell
him all he needs at prices dictated
by themselves?
The manufacturer is not driven
by such compulsion. Unwilling
and frequently unable to offer his
products in the general markets at
the prices fixed by competition there,
he looks to smaller sales at larger
profits. He first secures laws which
give him a great advantage, if not
monopoly in the home market, by
the burdens they impose upon his
foreign competitors. Then by the
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