Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-21
WHY OUR WHEAT DOES NOT
GO TO EUROPE.

1t is well known that the price of
American wheat is regulated by the price in
England--by the quotations in the Mark
Lane Express. The reason of this is
thatwe aim to ship our surplus to England,
and there it comes in competition with
Russian and Canadian wheat, and must be
sold as low as the grain from those re-
gions. The st. Louis Republican insists
that we do not ship all our surplus wheat
to that market for reasons that may be
traced to the protective tariff of our own
country. Protectionists tell us that we
consume the bulk Of our wheat il this
country, and it is important therefore that
we should build up this domestic market,
and let the foreign one go. Their method
of ''buildiug up the home market" is by
taxing the farmer for the benefit of
few manufacturers, who will, if
they can, repay his generosity by buy
ing their wheat and flour from Canadians.
The Republican says: ''The idea that
these manufacturing interests which are
the benefciaries of protection afford
home market for American breadstuffs,
or for even considerable proportion of
them, is one of the absurdest of all the
decisions born Of protection logic. The
chief industries that are thought worthy
to be protected at the cost of all others
are the manufactures of cotton, wool and
iron. The number of persons directly en-
gagged in these industries is estimated at
215, 900. If these persons were to sub
sist on agricultural produce alone, the
cost of their subsistence, at 81 a
week, would be $67, O8O, 900 a year.
If this sum be doubled to cover the
value of indirect consumption attributable
to industries represented, we will have
1874, 100, 900, as the amount of farm pro-
duce bought and consumed by these three
leading protected interests-or only about
four and one-tenth per cent of the gross
annual agricultural product, (S3, 282, $780,
OOO) yielded by the country. This shows
that the home market for the farmer
built up for years at an annual cost to the
country of about eight hundred million dol |
lars, is of the most insignificant character. |
The truth is Europe ought to be the
market for our surplus grain, and the
swarming millions of that country ought
to be the consumers of it. But we can
not afford to send a large amount of
grain to Europe; because we cannot sell
as cheaply as the Canadians and Russians;
and we cannot sell as cheaply as they,
because our farmers are burdened with
protective tariffs, that the Canadians and
Russians are free from. The American
farmer, with his superior intelligence,
skill, and implements of tiliage, and
cheap lands, ought to, aid, in truth can
raise grain at cheaper rates chan any other
farmer in the world; but the protection
lists will not allow him TO do it. They
force him to pay a tax on the lumber
and nails in his house, stable and barn; a
tax on the leather in his harness, on his
blows, hoes, harrows, reaper and tbresher;
. tax on the wagon he hauls his grain to !
he country market in AID an enormous
ak on the rails, cars and engines OF the i
Dad over which it is carried to the city !
market. Thus, every bushel OF wheat
hat he raises has TO pay at least one-half 5
Is cost price, in taxes, and cannot conse-