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THE COUNTRYMAN. BY J. A. TURNER. —“brevity is the soul of wit”— $1 A YEAR. VOL. III. TURNWOLD, PUTNAM COUNTY, GA„ MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1862. NO. 10. Iron. “ In a little while, iron will be as scarce as salt is now, and yet we hear of no efforts to manufacture this indispensable article. Salt might have been abundant now, it our people had commenced making it soon enough. There is yet time enough to have iron in abundance, if we go to work at once, but there is not a moment to be lost. There is sufficient ore, water-power and coal in the Southern Confederacy to make iron sufficient to supply the whole human family for generations to come. There is an abundance of unemployed capital and labor. Shall the government and people suffer for lack of this greatest element in civilization ? There are, we believe, inex haustible beds of ore within 10 miles of this town, contiguous to water-power and heavily timbered forests, where iron can be made profitably. Why don’t some of our capitalists embark in this business, instead of speculating on salt, corn, flour, and goo ber-peas ?” The foregoing is from the Athens Watch man.—Why don’t our capitalists embark in manufactures 1 That is the question.— The reason is obvious. Nobody can afford to manufacture any article at a low price. This is out. of the question. But if they manufacture it at a high price, they are de nounced as extortioners, and their property either seized—lawlessly seized—by gov ernment agents, or seizure is held up as a constant terror before their eyes. Our cap italists don’t embark in manufactures be cause they do not believe either their rep utations or their capital will be safe in such enterprise. With the whole press and people to hound them down a-s extortion ers—with a mob without law, or under col or of law—a mob of private persons or gov ernment officials, frcm governors down to corporals, to do violence both to their per son and their property, no wonder our mon ied men don’t engage in manufactures. There is a very unwholesome, and very hurtful public sentiment or, this subject, and the press, as I shall presently show, is mainly to blame tor it. Our government and people need manufactured articles, and yet they- whole policy is directed against manufactories. Instead of fostering and encouraging them, the whole aim seems to be to break them down—to thoroughly crush them out. The consequence is that our people, our army, and our government are suffering, and will suffer still more. At this time there are perhaps a dozen or more bills before the Georgia legislature, the effect of whose passage would be to cripple all the industrial resources of the country, when the development of those re sources is just as essential to the salvation of the country, as is the success of our ar mies in the field. The motives which in fluence the actors in this matter, are vari ous. Some are controlled by want of sense : some by mistaken motives of patriotism : while the large majority are playing the demagogue. All the latter, hearing the hue and cry of the press and people against factories and extortion, think to make a cheap reputation by putting down extortion and factories. It is a great thing to be with the crowd.—When you stab at what is truly extortion, this is all right : but when you stab at the manufacturing inter est of the country, you stab at your coun try’s vitals. Gov. Brown seized some salt once. l)id this bring salt down ? Not by any means. If it had any effect, it raised the price, for it prevented people from importing it, or from manufacturing it. The Southern Con- tederacy learns that there are parties now, who have salt which they wish to bring in to the state, but which they are deterred from bringing, on account of the fear of inimical legislation, or unlawful seizure. Nobody is going to manufacture or import salt, costing them from $10 to $40 per bush el, when the Georgia legislature threatens to make them lose from $5 to $35 per bush el on it. And so it is that this constant in terference with private property is paraly zing all industry, and constantly carrying up, instead of bringing down the price of things. It onr authorities would untetter the energy and enterprise of our people, instead of striking them with dead palsy all the time, then we might hope that arti cles needed by the country, would be pro duced by our people. This business of seizing private property is all wrong. Seizing salt don’t produce it, and unless you produce it, and increase the supply, you can’t cheapen it. The high way robber seizes upon a gentleman’s purse, and it makes the money very cheap to the robber, but. it does not increase the wealth of the country of which the bandit is an unworthy citizen. And so seizing salt, or manufactured articles, may make these things come very cheap to the gov ernment, but it does not add to the supply ot manufactured articles, and does not ben efit the country : but the government stands as a robber upon the highway of en terprise, and no one regarding his purse, will travel that way. Government with its acts of unlawful seizure is like a pirate craft upon the high seas, and as effectually blockades all commerce as the corsair on the ocean. The “ 2:90” doesn’t strike more terror into yankee ships than govern ors, legislators, press and people now do in to all manufacturing industry. And yet it is asked, “ Why don’t our capitalists go to manufacturing ?” The answer is plain : it is because they dread robbers and pirates. Government, in seizing private property, if not a robber, is certainly the greatest speculator, extortioner, and engrosser of them all. For it not only produces noth ing, but destroys all the sources of produc tion, and takes from the producers of the country what little has been already made. It has been thought the policy in some countries, and used to be thought the policy in the old United States, by some, to encou- ago manufactures—encourage them to ben efit the people and country at large. Our officials and people—(and the press encour age them in it)—seem to think it our policy to destroy all manufactures. And their policy is succeeding very well indeed. The whole course on this subject has been wrong. If government does not offer bounties and premiums for manufactured articles, it at least ought not to destroy manufactures. It ought to leave manufac turers to reap the fruit of their labors. It ought to protect them in their property, in stead of robbing them of it. If it had pur sued this course, manufactories would have sprung up all over the land, and production and competition would, by now, have brought prices down. If our governors, legislators, people, and press, persevere in the course they are now pursuing, every thing will continue to grow higher and higher, all the time, because while the de mand will be increasing, the supply will be shortened, and finally cut off. As I have said, the press is very much to blame for this. Editors and newspaper writers are generally consumers and not producers. They have had to pay high for their consumption, while for their only pro duction—-that is their newspapers—they have been compelled to take very irremu- nerative prices. IJence it is natural they should have pursued the course which they