ART. VII-MINNESOTA-HER PROGRESS AND HER BRIGHT FUTURE. MINNESOTA, during the few months of her existence as a State, has indeed had occasion to try the uses of adversity. That monetary crisis, which scattered ruin through the commercial world in 1857, would, for obvious reasons, be more severe and disastrous in a young frontier State, than elsewhere. Not having yet arrived at that stage when our community was self-sustaining, we were greatly dependent upon the wealth of our immigration, and the money of capitalists from abroad, sent here for profitable investment. Numbers of our adventurous and hopeful people had embarked in magnificent projects, and enterprises of great pith and moment, with scarcely any capital of their own beyond their strong arms and stout hearts. Many of our farmers were still in debt for their farms, their stock, or improvements, and few of them produced more than enough for their own consumption. We imported everything we had occasion to use. A very large proportion of the population was engaged in trade and more or less legitimate speculation. Such, indeed, has been the earlier condition of every State in the thriving West. Upon such a community, the sudden withdrawal of that credit upon which it had relied, the checking of immigration, the prostration of business, and all the consequences of a financial revulsion, must be more lasting and injurious. Legislation is powerless to cure such evils. The remedy lies in the people; and in and for them, beyond the clouds of to-day, there is a future, bright with promise. Contrast the condition of the State of Minnesota, to-day, with that of the Territory of Minnesota, ten years ago. Then, no thriving towns dotted our fertile prairies, or welcomed the steamboat to their crowded levees; no steamboats daily ploughed our navigable waters; no mills on every stream converted the monarchs of the forest into lumber, or the cereal growth into flour; and the unfurrowed fields smiled with no bountiful harvests. The population of the territory scarcely reached five thousand, and the total valuation of property was but little over eight hundred thousand dollars. The present population is probably one hundred and eighty thousand. The assessed value of taxable property for 1858 was over forty millions of dollars. In other words, the population has, on the average, doubled every two years, and our wealth has increased even more rapidly. If we look at the business and enterprise of the State, the growth has been no less vigorous. The following statistics are prepared from a township canvass, embracing nearly every district, and are undoubtedly reliable. They show the present extent of our farming interest, which will always be the leading one, and also the fitness and capabilities of our soil and climate for agricultural purposes. Whole area under cultivation, 1859.. Average of tilled land per farm VOL. III.-NO. III. 6 ......... .464.600 acres. 21 acres. Exports of Grain and Produce from the River Towns of Minnesota. In addition to the above exports, a great deal of produce of the Southern tier of counties was shipped from ports in Iowa. Cranberries and ginseng are gathered for exportation, but they hardly pertain to agriculture. Wool already begins to form an article of exportation. Hides form a considerable item, and butter is exported to some extent. The aggregate value of the total products of wheat, oats, corn and potatoes at the average current prices during the fall, amounts to about four millions of dollars, and the value of the exports, to four hundred thousand dollars. About 3,000,000 of bushels of wheat, harvested last year, are yet within the State. 1,000,000 of bushels are surely sufficient for our home consumption for one year, leaving a surplus still in the State, waiting a market, of 2,000,000 bushels. Calculate the surplus of each other article enumerated above, and estimate the value, and it will appear, that we have an agricultural surplus, the production of the tenth year of our existence, worth probably two millions of dollars. The question of providing an outlet to a market, for this and a future greater surplus, will hereafter demand consideration. It is apparent at a glance, with what relief we should be sensibly affected, if what we have to sell could find a cheap and speedy transit to those who have to buy. The average yield of wheat per acre, for the past year, in this State, was over twenty bushels. This, which is nearly double the average yield in the so-called wheat-growing States, indicates either an extraordinary year, or a better adaptation of soil and climate to wheat culture. Probably the season has been unusually productive, but it has long been claimed, by those who have had the opportunity to know, that Minnesota does, in fact, surpass the other Mississippi States, in that particular. The statistics of manufactures, though less complete, are not less encouraging. The following is a statement of exports of lumber, logs &c., from Minnesota: The surveyor-general of the first lumber district, reports as scaled in his district: The amount scaled in the other districts, is not ascertained. Such was our commencement, and such has been our growth. Iowa, from 1840 to 1850, quadrupled her population: up to 1859, that State had almost quadrupled the population of 1850. Suppose our progress is only as rapid as that of Iowa during the last named period; then, in 1870, we shall be a State of between 600,000 and 700,000 inhabitants, with an assessed valuation of property amounting to $200,000,000. Nor is this improbable. If, while we were few in number, with scarcely any capital, our country unknown, its advantages unnoticed, its productiveness of soil and salubrity of climate, at first unsuspected, then unacknowledged, and at length envied, we have accomplished so much as the record of the past exhibits, what may we not reasonably hope to attain before 1870, having now a capital, a population, a name, and a history? The day cannot be far distant, notwithstanding the errors of the past, and the darkness of the present, when Minnesota, guided by wise and prudent counsels, shall be as prosperous in her affairs, as she is blessed of Heaven in her advantages. ART. VIII.-USURY LAWS. I HAVE noticed with pleasure, Mr. Editor, in your December number, an article against the repeal of the usury laws. I agree with the writer in the main, and in consideration that so much has been written and spoken for years past against the new usury laws, and so little in their favor, beg leave to add something more in their favor. The idea the controlling idea with those who advocate such repeal, and of the ablest political economists likewise, if I mistake not, is, that money is like any other property, and like any other property should bring what it is worth: that is to say, if a horse would bring $150, you should not prohibit the owner from taking that sum and force him to take $125; so if money be worth 10 per cent., you should not force the owner to take 5 per cent.-that price of money, or interest, should be left unrestricted by legislative enactment, like the price of everything else. The false conclusion follows from a false assumption that money is like any other property. So far from being true, the very reverse is true. Money is unlike any other property. It is, and was intended to be, the standard of value for all other property. We do not, when we speak of the value of a horse, or other property, say it is worth so many sheep or hogs, but so much money. And now, having shown the fallacy of the premises, the conclusion based upon it, or deduced from it, is of course untenable. In a moral point of view, the repeal, sir, cannot be sustained. For if a principle or policy be sound or correct, carry it out to its results. Usury laws at one time did not exist in Alabama: such was the enormous rate of interest demanded, that the moral sense was shocked, and such contracts were set aside. Here, then, the result was such as to shock the moral sense, thus demonstrating the immorality of repealing the usury laws, as now contended for. No doubt such cases have occurred elsewhere. No doubt to the knowledge of many men, cases have occurred where the rate was so exorbitant, as to merit their condemnation though never made public. And as the writer in your REVIEW contends, the idea of restricting the rate of interest, consists well with the Bible. No: I should rather say to be consistent with its teachings, no interest at all should be allowed for the use or loan of money. There never was a wiser lawgiver than Moses, and he allowed his people to take interest from those only who were not of his people. The Israelites could not take interest one from another, though they might from the Gentile. And when that auspicious era dawned, when the Messiah came, there was to be neither Jew nor Gentile, but all Christians, and, of necessity, the right given by Moses to require interest ceased. This is shown by the writer referred to in your REVIEW, to consist well with the teachings of the New Testament. I know the term used in the Bible is usury, not interest; but in truth, all interest is usury-the sum per cent. allowed for the use of money. What the law allows, we term interest; more than this, we term usury. I know it is contended, that usury laws embarrass commerce, and as it has been beautifully said, "commerce is the harbinger of civilization." It may also be truthfully said, commerce panders to cupidity, cultivates avarice the most sordid of all vices. And while it may be said commerce established upon the bosom of the waters the city of Venice, and made it for a time the home of a brave heroic people, it may also be said, that there, as well as at Florence, the power of commerce and its merchant princes crushed out liberty. But I cannot think the usury laws embarrass commerce as much as the disregard of them, for an argument much relied upon is, that they might as well be repealed, for they are disregarded; so they argue, and I contend it is this disregard of those laws, which has engendered a reckless spirit of speculation that produces a commercial crisis. I believe if no interest were allowed, there would be no banks of discount; but in their place, banks of deposit; the only legitimate banks; and if there were no banks of discount, there would be comparatively few if any of those fluctuations which not only embarrass commerce, but all the other great interests of the country. Be this, however, as it may, whenever I see the effort made to abolish usury laws, I think of Shylock, and think I see evidence of the divine truth, "The love of money is the root of all evil." One thing is certain, if it be desired to use money in the language the beautiful expression employed, that it may "seek its level like water," you must, as is done in regard to the great life-preserving fluid, without which no living thing could move or have its beingput no price upon the use of it. Of course the argument does not apply where one owes a debt not based upon the loan of money. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 1.-COTTON IN EUROPE. THE apprehension in Europe is not that the supply of American cotton will exceed the demand, for they admit that 4,000,000 bales from us can be readily consumed; but should that figure be exceeded, and the East Indies contribute liberally, it is thought the productive power of the world will have surpassed that of the machinery and labor at present available for manufacturing. Says the London Circular: The chief difficulty seems to lie in the inability of the world to manufacture, rather than consume, at moderate prices, so vast a quantity; for, notwithstanding the spindles and looms have been pushed to their utmost immediate capacity, they have not been able to supply promptly their constantly pressing demand, even at prices above any former period for twenty years. There is no apparent cause at the moment to raise a doubt as to the continuance of this prosperity. In Europe there is cheap money, abundance of food at low prices, and profitable employment for all classes; while the enormous consumption of the East Indies is likely to remain in full force under the stimulating influence of the stream of precious metals, which has flowed continuously for some years to that quarter. |