Myers. Some idle slush that happens to suit the vanity of the cotton growers. Our roosters always strut the loudest.
Brightly. Why not? If two hundred millions’ worth of cotton never crossed the sea, how long would you have to hunt for a gold coin on the Atlantic seaboard?
Myers. What of your gold mines?
Brightly. A drop, only. Shut off the cotton production and how would we carry on a foreign trade?
Myers. Exchange your cereals. Again,—if you had nothing to buy with, you wouldn’t buy. No matter how much you produce here, you are forced to part with it to feed your always famished vanity. Before California, your cotton, cereals and meat went. Now it is California as well! Mark this: If thrown on your own resources, without a particle of foreign importation, you would be infinitely better off, because it would give an impetus to the development of your natural resources, so unparalleled.
Brightly. Come to natural resources, how came New York and New England with their wealth, and how would your pauper labor obtain their cheap clothing?
Myers. Egypt can raise cotton enough for the world. Thrift, hard labor and plenty of brains will make anybody what he needs.
Brightly. Of course, even if the business was basswood, hams and Peter Funk jewelry.
Myers. It is not to your credit that they find a susceptible market here.
Brightly. Why, Myers, we run the rest of this country as middlemen. We have tolerated the leeches a hundred years. Now we propose to shut down.