Year: 1865

If the negro question were once entire
ly out of the political arena, the Abolition
party would 60 to pieces Immediately
even as it is it seems to be in. the tthroes ol
dissolution. At the present time that or
ganization is composed of men agreeing
upon nothing but the extinction of slavery,
and that question being nearly settled, the
party will necessarily divide upon other is
sues. This Is already visible in relation to
the question of protection to our manufac-
lures. 1t is pretty well ascertained that
some of the heavy cotton manufacturers OF
New England are making from ninety to o
hundred per cent, net profit on their sheet
ings and prints. This is exciting and pleas
ant enough to those who pocket the profits
! but it is raising howl of Indignation
among some of those who pay the bounty


Among the most violent in their oppOsi-
ton to what they style ''New England Mo-
nopolies" are some of the extreme radicals
of the West, who style the protective prin-
ciple q system by which the many are
robbed for the benefit OF the few. The fol-
lowing plain talking from the Chicdgo Trib-
ane, most radical sheet in regard to every
thing pertaining to the negro, will give the
reader an idea of the feeling existing among
the Western Abolitionists against their more
astute brethren of New England. Says the
Tribune. ".r. 10. H.n .. . rI


"Brown sheetings are selling for thirty
five cents per yard, and raw cotton for for
ty-three cents per pound. pound OF
cotton will make three yards of sheetings


The pound of cotton, costing forty-three
cents, upon being put through the mill de-
velops into one hundred and five cents
worth of sheetings, showing difference of
siXty-twO cents, to be divided between
manufactur. ng profit, wages of operatives,
wear OF machinery, commissions of agents,
and Government tax. The tax Is fraction
more thar five cents on the pound of man
ufactured cotton, and the commissions for
selling two and one-half cents. Subtract
these items from the sixty-two cents, and
we have fifty-four cents to be carried to the
credit side of pound of cotton. The wages
of operatives and the wear of machinery
would obviously be small fraction on a
pound of this staple, which undergoes such


an astonishing transmutation by passing
through cotton mill. Without going into
minute calculations it is safe to say that
the profit to the manufacturer on yard OF
cotton goods at the present time considera-
bly, exceeds the entire cost of yard before
the war. Why this state of things should
continue-why cotton goods should be GO
ing up rather than down-we are unable to
see, unless it be for the reason that manu-
facturers have combined, and are playing
upon the market to keep prices from obey
ing the law of gravitation which has brought
raw cotton down from one dollar and eighty
cents to forty-three cents per pound.


IAN article which we copied from thelGd-
lena Gazette few days since, suggested as
a remedy for the eXtortionate prices at
which cotton goods are held, the repeal of
the duties on imported cottOns. The exist
ing tariff is five cents per yard, in gold, on
the invoice value of the goods at the place
of shipment, or three times the amount OF
the internal duty on the same article


Why there should be any tariff on
foreign cottons in excess of the internal
duty, 1t is not easy to see, unless 1t is
based upon purpose to tax thirty millions
of people, not for the benefit of the Gov
ernment, but to enrich few hupdred cot
ton-spinners, who, we should suppose, were
net the most appropriate objects of ohari-
ty. Protection to the cotton manufacture
ers of New England, who are able to COM
pete successfully with foreign manufacture
ers in foreign countries, and who, if not
able to control the home market now, with
out the aid of Government, ought to
be knocked in the head for the good of their
customers, is monstrous delusion. The
farmers of Illinois need as much protection
lOr Inelr pigs anu poultry, anu are dS JuSIly
entitled to 1t, as the spinners of Lowell and
Lawrence for their sheetings. We do not
wonder that the bankers of Frankfort-on-
the-Main told Mr.. Lanier the other day,
when he talked to them about piling more
duties on imports and exports to fortifv the
national credit, that they thought the Unit
ed States had already placed too many re-
strictions on commerce for their own pros
perity, and that any further steps in that
direction would lessen the ability of the
Government to pay the interest on the ma
tional debt. This protective tariff on cot
ton goods, which enables the home manu-
facturer to take the money of the home
consumer, without restoring an equivalent,
is one of those clumsy restrictions upon
commerce which cripple the Government
by crippling the masses of the people, and
rendering them less able to pay taxes than
they would be if trade were left to its
natural channels, and each man were al
lowed to buy where he. can buy cheapest
and sell where he can sell dearest. We
trust the legislation of the country hereaf-
ter will be shaped with some small view to
the interests of the thirty millions of peo-
pie who wear shirts, and not exclusively to
those Of the few hundreds who make
them - ...-.. o..