North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1870-04-27
The Tariff and Agriculture.

The Tariff and Agriculture.
The papers which advocate tariff for
protection, as distinguished from tariff
for revenue, are printing the following ex-
tract from a speech by Mr.. IIoar, of
Massachusetts, to show how wonderfully
benefcent such a tariff is to agriculture
"The emi grants from the Old World are
leaving free trade England, and the young
men Of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania,
leaving the manufacturing communities
under which they have been brought up,
and, having the whole world before them
where to choose, 90 cut, and, while this
high protective policy is enforced with q
rigor never before known in our history,
select agricultural employments in these
Western agricultural States as the best
avenues to comfort, to wealth, and to
prosperity. This is fact, sir. which
overthrows all the reasoning, all the logic
of the economists, and the figures of
Special Revenue Commissioners. The
instinct which leads man to select his
place for life, where he shall rear his
children and establish his home, is some-
thing that will not be misled by any mere
theory of political economy. This one
consideration shows that tariff which
promotes manufactures in the East encour-
ages and promotes, in still greater de-
gree, the agricultural wealth and prosper
ty of the West.n
We do not suppose that Mr.. Hoar can
produce an instance of any man leaving
either Old or New England, or Pennsyl-
vania, and betake himself to agriculture
in the Northwest, because of any induce
ments held out to such industry by the
tariff. The agricultural production of the
country has increased and grown up while
the protective policy has been enforced,
but it owes none Of that increase or
growth to the tariff. There are crops
grown and harvested in years of protract-
ed drouth, and in seasons Of unusual and
unnatural rainfall, but they grow in spite
of these circumstances, not because of
them. Had there been no protective tar
lit, the increase in the productions Of the
soil would have been still greater. and the
West would have still more hardy labor
ers attracted to it by the liberal rewards
they would have received. But when the
cost Of producing grain is so enhanced by
taxation that the surplus of his crop will
hardly bear the cost OF transportation to
market, much less purchase what the
farmer needs, it is difficult to understand
how this very taxation induces men to
engage in the business. We can under-
stand, however, why it is that labor
abandons the districts where protection
regulates the price Of food, and does not
remunerate the laborer. Men working
from day to day for wages, three-fourths
OF which is CONSUMED to pay taxes on the
bread and meat they eat, the clothing
they wear, and the implements Of their
trades, naturally see no future before
them for themselves and families but one
OF toll and poverty. ''protection' levies
its taxes in their name, but they realize
none Of its boun.ies. The workmen in
the shoe shops Of New England get the
same wages they got before protection"
and no more. and yet upon the very shoes,
Of their own make, which they need for
themselves and families, they pay tax
of 80 or GO per cent. The carpenters and
masons. the tailors and shoemakers, the
plaSterers and mechanics of all kinds. are
American laborers who have no taxes
levied for their benefit, but who are taxed
to starvation 10 swell the profits Of some
monopoly i'll iron, lumber, carpe.s, cotton.
and woollen cloth, salt, and copper. The
stoves they use, the coal they burn, the
crockery and glass ard tin ware and cut.
lery they use in their houses, are taxed to
protect capital. But they are left to perish
under the load. or come to the West to
earn their bread upon their oan soil.
These men come hither for another rea-
son, which Mr. l!oar WILL in time, have
brought home to his understanding They
come here where they can vote for Repre>
sentatives of the public interest and not
of monopoles. They come here to vote
for Representatives who will remove these
grinding taxes instead of increasing them,
and, in due time, the toilins men who
have been driven forth from New Eng
land aud Pennsylvania by excessive taxa>
ton, levied upon them in their old homes
in the name Of protection" will be heard
Of from their farms in the West, through
their Representatives, demanding the
unconditional repeal of every tax not
levied for purposes of public revenue.
Then Mr.. lloar will discover why it is
that, under protective tariff, SO many of
his neighbors have moved away from the
manufacturing districts to engage in un.
protected. labor These are the men who
have experienced the dclusion of protec-
tion, and who will not rest contented until
they have freed themselves and their
countrymen from the oppression Chicago
TiJupe