Year: 1859

From the New York Tribune.l


We doubt whether any other country ex-
hibits larger amount or proportion of use
less talent, of misdirected energy, than
ours. Our clever young men, in fearful
super abundance, addict themselves to law, (,
to Physic, to commerce, mainly because
these seen the oaly pursuits which promise
wealth and distinction. Hazardous as mer-
chandising is known to be, long and toll
some as is the path to eminence and for
tune at the bar or in medicine, these seem
to most OF our aspiring youth the only un-
official avenues to fame and fortune; hence
they are uniformly ruinously crowded.
There has been no day Of the last forty
years in which there were rot four times
as many trying to live by trade in this coun-
try as were needed in that occupation
Hence the fatal expansion and looseness of
mercantile credit; hence the failure of at
least nine-tenths of all who engage in traf-
fc. To fail is as natural an end to q mef-
camille career in this country as to be kill
cd is The soldier enlisted for life. faman
opens a store, the ready inquiry is, "How
long will he last!" and he who escapes
bankruptcy for so long as ten years, does
well-better than the average. We could
name country villages which have had their
fifteen or twenty mercantile firms in the
course of the last thirty years and broken
them all within two or three; and of these
not one has retired with competence.


One is trading yet, and solvent; two,
perhaps, have retired or removed, losers,
but not broi en-; the rest have gone the way
of all American traders, or SO nearly all
that the exceptions help to prove the rule.
OF the young men who will this year en-
bark in trade, it is safe to say that three
fourths i'll want a national bankrupt law
within the next ten years, and another eight
within twenty. But they cannot break SO
fast that others will no, scramble for their
places. Thousands of new concerns will
be opened this year, to be closed as thous-
ands were in 1878. 1t were idle 10 re-
monstrate against this tendency; the thing
to be done is to countervail it.


OF the need of good farmers among US we
have frequently spoken. We will let no
one quarrel with US as 10 what constitutes
a good farmer. since we concrde that every
tiiler of the soil who grows large average
crops pretty uniformly, makes his farm
richer each year, and realizes profit there
from, is of the right sort, though he has
no knowledge of and no faith in science,
never saw drain tile, and believes the ed
ucation which suffices for an OK good enoug h
for farmer. That there is a deplorable
deficiency Of good farmers, even of this
sort, is shown by the fact tina. the average
yield Of our farms is diminishing, that of
wheat being hardly half so much as it was
fifty years ago: while in England and Scot
land i, has nearly doubled during the same
period. Attribute this falling off to what
ever insect or other mischief you may, we
are sure that bad culture-the exhaustion
from the soil Of certain elements essential
to wheat-;t is TIE real and principal cause.
That the midge has destroyed the growing
wheat on thousands of acres of virgin soil
does not shake our conviction that, had
wheat been grown but once in four years
Throughout. our country, with proper treat
ment Of soil and rotation of crops interme-
diate!y, we should have suffered compara-
lively little BY rust, or blight, or insects.


The Hessian fly came to us Gas is sup
posed) from Europe; but compared with this
country. Europe suffers very little from this
and all other des,royers. Man was not
made to be baffled and defeated by a worm;
but if the worm is allowed TO have the field
to himself, the man has M right to COM
plain. We hold that if half our capable.
clear-seeing, ambitious young men were toi
devote to agriculture the energy, enterprise
and knowledge that they now give to trade
and the professions, they would greatly
bless those left in stores or Offices, render
our farming generally more efficient and
successful than it now is, and add millions
to the annual product and aggregate wealth
OF the coutry.


But. beyond this. there opens vast, in
viting field for talent and enterprise in man.
ufactures. to which we would invite the at
tention of our young men.


This country has become .he largest mar
ket on earth for fabrics. in proportion to
it's population. 1t is rapidly increasing in
population and consumption. Whoever
among us knows how to max" almost any,
thing we'll and cheaply need not look abroad
for market. We buy more broadcloth
annually than any other nation, yet we do
not make one yard in hundred of it; while
we make cassimeres, de hines, prints.
drills, fannels, counterpanes, and many
other fabrics, so cheapiy as to.dely foreign
competition.


OF hosiery We have extensive consumers,
and hardly anything can be simpler THAI
its manufacture; yet we import the great
bulk Of what we consume, while exporting
none of our own production. ln short, there
are scores of opportunities On every side for
embarking in manufactures with a moral
certainty of immediate success and ultimate
wealth.


Nor do we need capital as is often as
serted. There is capital enough in this
country, and readiness to invest it, If its
owners can but be sure that it will be wise
ly employed. Our greatest deficiency is in
practical knowledge. Were ten thousand
of our young thoroughly qualified to direct
and manage manufactures, there would be
room for them all. Mills and improved wa
.. Ter powers cell at ruinous rates, in good
parts because there are few O. none qualified
BY training and experience to make the


most Of them. Had ons-fourth of our youth


who have been sent IA college during the
last ten years been sent instead 10 the hes,


manufactures Of the Old World, there tc