The Blackpool Herald. — 1879-09-26 (Blackpool, Lancashire, England)

BAD TRADE AND ITS CAUSES. TO THE EDITOR. Sut,—Time rolls on, and the depression in trade does not leave us. Some years ago the Daily Telegraph contained an article in which occurred words to this effect ;—" As the night is always the darkest just before dawn, let us hope that the clouds spread so thickly around us are only the precursors of a brighter era." The clouds, if possible are now more dense than ever, as all will testify who take notice of passing events, and have heard of the widely spread distress, distress which is not brightened by hope, but darkened with despair. Only last week we read in the columns of our London papers, of farmers committing suicide, merchants becoming bankrupt, manufactories which originally cost £400,000 being offered for £70,000, in one particular district, men and women starving and only kept by fear of consequences from rising en masse and demanding bread. While such things are passing around us, it behoves every true Englishman to discover, and alleviate as far as 18 in his power, the causes of such effects, for they are not without their causes. I know many will sum up by saying, we as a nation have been godless, drunken, warlike, ambitious of territory and such like. Therefore the judgments of a just God have descended upon us. Yet it should be remembered that God works not so much by partial as by general laws, and it is purely from a commercial standpoint that I wish to make, through the medium of your valuable paper, some remarks upon the direct influence which some of our national bad habits have upon our commercial prosperity. Many eminent men have said, and said truly, that one cause of dulness in trade is over-production. But in most instances they have left it to others to give the primal cause, and that is—how comes the excess in production? Is it that England is surfeited with food, with good clothing, with domestic comforts? It certainly does not seem like it by the accounts we receive day by day. The most dubious will agree with me when I say that if our English homes were fairly provided with necessary comforts, the cry of over-production would vanish. and be no more heard of. Why cannot our fellow cauntrymen have what is essential to their welfare and comfort, where the articles are so abundant. The wants of the world are as extensive as ever they were. Gold is more plentiful in England. than ever it was. We as a nation, though we may have lost some of our skill, may yet be called the workshop of the world, and as such, deserve higher remuneration than those whose business is the cultivation of the soil; yet we are suffering more than they. Last year the total value of our exports was £193,000,000. Our national bill for the sale of intoxicating liquor in the same year was £143,000,000. Lord Coleridge, with others in eminent positions, have said that nine tenths of the crime which came under their jurisdiction emanated from this one source. Whenever I look down the police reports in a newspaper, or attend the police courts, I find more than three quarters of the convictions are for or through drunkenness. Reckoning, then, another £140,000.000 for the expense which is incurred to "Control the Traffic," and then deducting £80,000,000 which it gives to the revenue, we have a bill of £200,000,000 for one article of traffic, which, for the sake of conciseness, I will not enlarge upon, but ask intelligent readers to discover, if they can, the equivalent, for there is scarcely an atom of support in it, although to keep it going there is destroyed annually enough corn to provide every family in the United Kingdom in bread for four months out of the twelve. Suppose next week, instead of spending £2,500,000 in strong drink we spent it in necessary articles, it would give such an impulse to trade as to shake it to its very centre ; and were it continued would give us such a time of prosperity as has not been surpassed in the history of England. Men cry out that we have toimport so much grain from foreign countries. Do they not see that if we did not destroy, nay worse than destroy, all this, we should need so much less from abroad. What would be the feeling in this country were news to appear in the columns of our newspapers of 3,000,000 acres of corn feloniously set on fire by a body of men? They would be execrated by the community, and no pueishment would be severe enough for them. Yet worse than this is the case, for in this destruction man is robbed of his manliness, woman of her virtue, and Christianity of its blessed influence. Some will perhaps say this is the outcome of the train of fanatical teetotalers. It is a plain statement of facts, which challenges contradiction and refutation. These views are held by tens of thousands of- as true Englishmen as ever nut I their foot on British soil. One hundred and thirtysix members of Parliament declared last year that something ought to be done to stem the torrent of intemperance. Our gracious Queen is herself patroness of the Church of England Temperance Society. Perhaps some say, what object have lin view by writing this. I might reply by asking what object is ainfed at by speaking and writing on other political subjects, for this is a political question and an interesting one, as manifested by the unusual attendance of members whilst the debate on Sir Wilfrid Lawson's motion was discussed in Parliament. I would like to draw public attention to a question to my- mind the most vital and interesting since the days of the Corn Law Repeal; the most noble and philanthropic since the days when against vested interest and deeply-rooted prejudice Wilberforce stood up and nobly pleaded for our coloured brethren. The facts and statistics I have stated, being correct, this question demands the most earnest attention of the commercial part of the community, and those who are most interested in the commercial prosperity, the working men of England.—Yours truly, S. M. Blackpool, Sept. 24, 1879.  CHIMNEY ON FLAlL—James Dickson, Cooksonstreet, was fined is. and costs for permitting the chimney of his house to be on fire.