180 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



legislation, one section will thus have given up 

 much more than the other. 



But it is not intended that prohibition shall 

 "be the consequence of the law, and we very much 

 doubt if the convention would have half a dozen 

 members in attendance if it were thought that 

 would be the effect. But it may have that ef- 

 fect, and hoist the engineers with their own pe- 

 tard. 



The game of restriction is always hazardous, 

 and should never he played by gentlemen in a 

 passion. Bluff itself is not more dangerous. 

 Suppose Congress shall unwisely throw this tub 

 to the whale, and grant the law. Where may 

 we stand? British farmers use a great deal of 

 guano, perhaps as much as we do ; and they pay 

 for it, grudgingly, to be sure, but still they pay 

 it, more than we pay. If the effect of the pro- 

 hibitory duty shall be to reduce the price of 

 guano to $47 per ton, to the British wheat grower 

 when we cannot buy at less than $46, or if Peru, 

 in exasperation, places Great Britain on the foot- 

 ing of the most favored nation, and sells guano to 

 her at $40 per ton, but none to us at any price, 

 can we doubt that the whole of her annual sales 

 will be made to tfie English wheat grower ? And 

 how great would be the impetus thus given to 

 our greatest competitors, who in buying all that 

 we now get would kill two birds with one stone : 

 increase their own product, and cripple ours. 

 But suppose we shall bring Peru to terms. The 

 same of course will be granted to all other na- 

 tions, and thus we shall stand precisely where 

 we were before if the price of wheat abroad de~ 

 pends on the relative production of the wheat 

 zone. 



But again : As Peru stands by treaty stipula- 

 tion on the footing of the most favoured nation, 

 we shall be obliged to impose the same restric- 

 tions on the guanoes of all other countries except 

 our own, if we have them, and so strengthen their 

 competition against ourselves all over the world. 



And still again : Supposing that none of the 

 above objections apply, as Peruvian guano is the 

 best in the world and outsells any other, it can 

 be taken from Peru to other countries and change 

 hands without let or hindrance ; thence it can be 

 shipped hither, and will be, with all the charges 

 of this roundabout transaction superadded to the 

 price. 



So that turn which way he may, the position 

 of the restrictionist bristles with dilemmas. 

 We hear it contended that public opinion is 



in favour of the Convention and its measure. 

 Perhaps so ; and if inconsiderate declarations 

 be accepted, of course so. But by their acts ye 

 shall know them. Persons very frequently, and 

 very honestly too, commit themselves to one 

 opinion where their conduct really exhibits 

 another ; for what but opinion steers the course 

 of men in the daily business of life. And what 

 is public opinion but an aggregate of private 

 opinion. Now last fall, every body who could 

 not get guano at less, bought it at $60 per ton, if 

 they thought they could afford it, and the large 

 number who bought at that price shews that 

 they then thought they could. Their aggregate, 

 or public opinion was then, that though guano 

 might be high, it was not too high, at that price. 

 If they shall have been mistaken, as if wheat 

 brings less than two dollars they certainly will have 

 been, they will not buy again; and as the Peruvian 

 Government must meet its liabilities by sales of 

 Guano, the price will fall. If it does, the fall 

 will have resulted from "public opinion pri- 

 vately expressed," so to speak ; which spring- 

 ing from the great truth that in the ordinary 

 transactions of life each man is a better judge 

 for himself than Government can be for him, 

 will be much more influential on trade, and more 

 salutary to all parties, than a memorial to Con- 

 gress, asking that body to say, in effect, by law 

 that no man can afford to give more than 46 dol- 

 lars per ton for guano, when the fact is directly 

 the reverse. 



We have heard it gravely contended that that 

 is as much as could be afforded for the article. 

 Why then do people buy it at higher rates ? Are 

 all the farmers demented ? And how can a con- 

 vention of mad men cure the Lunacy ? What 

 people think they can "afford" to give is the 

 measure of price whether under the influence 

 of competition or monopoly: and for a conven- 

 tion of farmers to attempt to regulate the price of 

 any article monopolized or not on any other prin- 

 ciple than that of individual opinion, will be about 

 as hopeful an effort as for a man to regulate his 

 own breathing, which whoso attempts will find 

 himself short-winded in some ten minutes or 

 less. 



The talk that we have heard about the neces- 

 sity of combining against monopoly, and claiming 

 this legislative concession to a great interest is 

 like that we hear too often about the necessity of 

 having agriculture represented in the cabinet at 

 Washington, and setting up a department for the 



