132 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



people need, and that the manufacturing people of England need more than 

 that country produces. If we like, they will pay for our butter in money, 

 but as we have not artisans enough to manufacture for us, we pay for a 

 portion of the fruits of their labor in butter. Here we are, then, paying 

 freight on butter 3,000 miles, and paying freight on goods in return, while 

 it is as clear as the sun in the brightest blaze of noon, that if the goods we 

 need were made at home we would save what is paid for freight, and also 

 the increased price which the butter would bring when sold fresh for 

 immediate use. And it follows that if we ourselves manufactured the 

 goods which England does for us, we would have such a market as she 

 has, at our own doors. 



"Three objections are oifered, one by England, two by ourselves. She 

 says, and for this reason she always goes to war, ' my laborers must 

 live.' It is a good reply that it is not necessary for any one's happiness 

 that they should live in England. Let them come to America and we will 

 set them to work. 



" We ourselves object that if we become a manufacturing people our 

 shipping interests will suifer. Not a bit of it; for our ships instead of 

 being engaged in carrying raw aiaterials, will be as profitably engaged in 

 carrying the same manufactured. This is precisely what England is doing, 

 what she has long done, and it is the secret, if it is a secret, of her 

 immense wealth. Then, we object that if we encourage manufacturing 

 interests we foster monopolies, and help shrewd men to get rich out of the 

 laboring poor. This is an old cry, and the men who uttered it loudest and 

 longest were enemitis of our country; in fact they now are in rebellion 

 against it. What! to put down monopolies at home must we labor to 

 build them up abroad ? Is the industry of the great West to contribute to 

 sustain the bloated prosperity of foreign countries ? Are no people to be 

 rich but the English? Sending butter to England! The cows from which 

 this butter is made had better be employed in hauling materials for build- 

 ing factories, and then if there is more butter than the operatives need, 

 use it to grease the machinery. 



" Look at this matter in another light. We have in our country many a 

 million of people owning no land, who cannot profitably be employed, and 

 who think themselves happy if they can get bread, and corn bread at that, 

 saying nothing about butter at all. This class, if set to work in factories 

 of our own, would support themselves well, and help America to get truly 

 rich. 



"These things show us how foolish we are; one thing should alarm us. 

 The grain, the butter, the lard and the meat which have been sent from 

 America have actually manured a good part of England, while our soil to 

 the same extent has been impoverished. Travelers wonder when they find 

 the ruins of large cities in the midst of deserts in Asia. To me it is clear 

 that once those deserts were fruitful, and that the soil was carried off with 

 the grain. America, too, will be a desert if we continue in our present 

 course. Our prairies will be like a zahara, without a tree or a blade of 

 grass. One may start little objections, but it is impossible this should be 

 otherwise, for when we send annually 50,000,000 of bushels of grain to 

 Europe, we annually send along with it all that is valuable in the soil of 



