The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1873-04-25
"OUR COUNTRY"
HOw America Plumbers Americans.

Ex-Governor Donnelly, of Min
nesOta, recently delivered a vigor-
Gus address before q "grange" of
husbandmen at Hastings. He told
them truths which ought 10 be
known and understood of all men
who are going daily lower on the
downhill side of posterity, as the
victims of the laws made To enrich
and "protect" pirates and piracy.
He read paper, signed by the prin-
cipal merchants In Hastings, in
which they state that ''the amount
of purchases made by farmers has
fallen off during the last five yeSrs
from one-third to One-half; that is
to say, the farmers are evidently
econOmizing in every way, making
smaller bills, and buying only the
necessaries of life." This, of course,
is one of the proofs and consequent
ces of steady, declining prosperity.
er said with no less truth than force,
tIniust laws have driven the far
mers of the whole country to the
wall, and diminished their means
of existence one-third or one-half.
This. of course, signifies a shrink
age of the eutire business of the
country to the same extent. The
laws of the country and the mono
poly power they create and protect,
have been bent to impoverish the
people, and now they begin TO feel
that they have killed the goose that
laid the golden eggs"
When will our farmers begin 10
consider the operation of these new
slave laws? Here are few signi-
ficant facts:
a sewing machine costs for the
work and material Sl2. We paw
$40 forit. The same machines are
exported to Europe and sold for
S32, after paving freight across the
Atlantic. 1 found in the Belfast
News, of Dec. 4, 1873, the adver-
tisement of the Singer sewing ma
chine for u los, about $3.50 of our
currency. We pay the difference of
nearly $40, under our patent lava,
for being the most patient and gull
lible f. OILS that ever pretended to II
capacity of sclf-government.
Mccormick gave evidence in
law suit, rect nifty, that his reapers
cost $50 10 manufacture. We pay
nearly 500 for them.
The threshing machines, for
which we pay 500. could, am in
formed, be built for 500. And so
of all other implements.
In part, this is the effect of our
unjust patent laws !; in part, il is the
effect of the purchasing power Of
wealth amassed by means of those
laws upon Venal congressman and,
in part, il is the effect of that robber
device called a protective tariff,
which binds men hand and foot in
this Gland of liberty" in the power
of the protected inonopolist. The
Euglishman has free trade, he,
therefore can buy an American
sewing machine Tor $32, while the
American living next door to the
protected" manufacturer, must pay
more than double that sum. What
is to hinder the American from or.
dering his Ancrican-made sewing
| machine frcm Belfast, and, after
paying freight on it twice across
the Atlantic ocean, getting il for
one-balf the price which he would
be compelled to pay to his neigh
] Dor the manufacturer Why should
American laws thus place Ameri-
can citizens at a disadvantage 10
Her Maiesty's subjects In an Aneri-
can market? Who can say there
is justice in such laws TO enslave
Americans in their own country
So, too, of reaping machines.
An Illinois farmer, could send TO
England, buy a McCormIck's reap
er and have it shipped across the
Atlantic and half way across the
continent to his farm, for half the
money he must pay to Boss McCer-
mick for the same niachine-but for
| what? Why, but for the fact that
our blessed Father at Washington
deems il necessary to"proiect" poor,
struggling, povcrty-stricken Boss
Mccormick.
Such are the artificial profits
which the protected" monopOlist
enjoys under the parental ere oil
our Great Father. Where are the
farmers artificial profits? Ills pro
duce is as low as before the war
while everything he buys aud every
expense he must meet are at wal
prices, thanks TO the blessed s.pro,
tective system"
Gays an AOWb popcEs
"a farmer would cheerfully sell
his pork at 81 75 or So per hundred
if cotton and wooden goods, sal
and other articles which he b1yi
were at rroportionatc rates; bu
they are not. So farmer comes t6
town and puts two loads of potatoes
on his feet in the shape of his win
ter boots. If he stays all night HI
will eat load of oats. HIS wifi
wears five acres of wheat, and thu
children each ten acres OF corr, ant
are not very warmly clad then
For an overcoat he wears goot
four-year-old steer, and il he spor
Sunday suit il is in the shape o
! at least twenty fat hogs. And, OF
: top of that, his farm wears 3 mort
/ gage that is worse than hard-pan &
the soil, and the annual tax rofs ia
to his roof worse than rain-s
Another Journal says:
; "In driving through this count,
we see many farms that are unocctl
D pied, uncultiyated, and apparentl
going to ruin: many others occu
: pied by tenants whose generl