The Rock Island daily Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1872-1873, 1873-04-22
THE OoRDovA FARMER's VIEWS ON
A PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
He Thinks it About Time TO wean the Infan

He ApuuL A4tuG 10 Wehn the AHIhut'
: To THE EDITOR OF The Rock ISLAND
ARGUS, Dear Sir:-It must be in eonse-
quence Of early education, force OF habit,
party bigotry, or paid championship, that
causes number of newspapers to take
the course they do in reference to the
farmers movement now in progress to OBJ
tain redress for the many unjust extortions
that are practiced upon them. These
papers are ever ready to aid them in bring
ing the railroads to a realizing sense of
Justice in their dealings with the producers,
but affect to think that the greater extor-
ton Of the protective tariff is all right, is
indeed no extortion at all, and that farm
ers have no business to pass resolutions
against it, or in other words don't know
what they are about when they do. Some
even affect TO think that the revolution
should not be suffered to run into politics
at ALL Well, this latter position brings to
mind the fable Of the wolves and sheep
in which the wolves proposed that II the
sheep would come into their toldquletly that
then they. the wolves, would protect them
secure from all harm. Well, the protect
ed interests have, long since, promised that
tothe otherinterestS, if theywould only trust
them. They would even bring about the
millennium. locthe Dow Jr style, ofcoursel
that is if the lion and lamb will lie down
together, but the lamb will be in the lion 5
bellv-it is near there now, fguratiyely
speaking.
The idea Is simply preposterous for the
farmers to inaugurate a resolution against
monopolies and then let the biggest and
most exacting of them all 60 on plumber
ing unmolested. No sir the farmers pro
pose to do nothing Of the kind. The rev
olution will stop when justice is done, and
that will be when each interest stands upon
its own foundation, supported only by its
legitimacy and usefulness.
Thirty years ago we were told, and be
lieved it then, but have long since lost
faith in such promises, that if we would
foster and protect our infant manufactures
now. while they were young, that soon
they would bless us with home market
for all our surplus products, and that com
petition would, by and by, bring all their
productions down to the lowest price for
which it was possible to produce them
way below the foreign article, aud could
then exchange for them at our door with
on, G. between, and that ,Al balance 4
trade would turn in our favor and the
precious metals would flow into our Golfers
and make our currency stable and secure
so that we could, at all times, exchange it
for gold, dollar for dollar Well we did
foster and nurse them, and do it still,
thinking manhood would be reached after
a while; but, confound them, they are big
ger infants now than ever, Judging from
the amount of nurse they ask for, and il
they are not weaned soon they viii yet
suck their mother dry But the farmers
nave Cbult u lIlt utleImliidtlDu ts dubll
the plan of the Spartans in dealing with
weakly infants that is, turn them out to
shift for themselves, and if they cannot
sustain an independent existence then let
them die, for in that case they would not
be worth saving.
So far, every promise that has been
made in return for the kindness showered
upon them, has proved fraud not one of
the many predictions has come true Our
home market, produced by them, is a
sham, and the cheap manufactured arti-
cles we were promised have doubled IN
der the musings, and the balance of trade
Is against US so that it takes nearly hun
dred millions per annum of our precious
metals to fill the foreign Golfers. and our
boosted currency can be exchanged for
gold by paying one dollar and twenty cents
for the gold dollars and the farmers pro
ducts have no home market and will not
pay transportation to the foreign That is
what has come of it all FARMER.
CordOva. April DIST 1874