The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-11-26
THE ROBBERIES OF THE
TARIFF.

letter from Erenchman, living at
Sleepy Eye Lake, Brown County. He
''goes for Worthy Master Parsons
after this fashion.
Occasionally there comes to Sleepy Eye
Lake the Master Of the State Grange, In
Minnesota. He has spoken very well, be
has given much good advice, but he has
never opposed those monsters which op-
press us to-day. He has never said that we
pay LlOre to these odious combinations than
the farmers paid in times OF feudal rights
and seigniories.
Of course not. Worthy Master
Parsons is more at home denouncing !
Anti-Monopolists than Railroads. His |
logic is, that the men who attempt to
open the sleepy eyes Of the farmers are
their enemies; but the men who strip
them OF the fruits Of their hard indus
try, are their friends. His policy |
is, "How not to do it, He is to-day
the worst and most influential enemy
the farmers of this State have.
But our French friend continues
We pay to the wheat ring an indirect tax
greater than the 1.-THE of those times, which
was tenth. That is one bag in ten. Now
if we sell wheat in the fall we get 90 or 6U
cents per bushel, and s1.0O in June. Our
1.-THE is, in reality then, fre bagsin ten, five
sell in the tall. That is to say, if farmer
who harvests 500 bushels OF wheat sells it in
the fall he receives $3.50: perhaps a little
more or less. The grain ring then keeps
from the farmer $3.50. What debts he might
pay with this sum, or what happiness he
might procure for his family! Thus this
terocious beast grasps each year the greater
part OF his crop for one year or one-third of
It's value. 1t is always the poor fsrmer that
supports this brigandage, because he is
forced to sell in the fall as soon as harvested
Then they dispute with him about the quail
ity, CHEAT in the measurement, and by the
time the sowing and harvesting is paid for
he has nothing left. And it is this afro
| cious speculation, outgrowth of selfish or
carnations, that keeps him always poor.
Every word of that is gospel truth.
And yet the probabilities are that that
Frenchman voted for the Republican
party, party which has bought its
way back to power in Wisconsin for
the sole purpose Of repeating the Pot
ter law; party which in Minnesota has
year after year passed bogus laws on
the question of transportation, and
which has left the people subject to the
very robberies described above.
Nor is this all behind this railroad
robbery lies another and greater rob-
berry that which is consumm ated
under the Protective Tariff. And here
we will put on the witness stand Re-
publican editor, Joseph Medill, ex-
Mayer Of Chicago, editor of the now
Republican paper, the Chicago Tribune.
He said, the other day:
At this time the tariff OF the United States
ercee2S that Of any civilized nation in the
World Com pare d with the tariffs of other
countries it is a m0nstyosity Of tcration that
is not attempted by any enlightened Govern
ment As this tax is not levied for revenue
but merely to protect the manufacturing
districts, We can only draw the inference,
| that to the extent that the late elections were
controlled by the tariff, the people OF the
manufacturing districts, as well as the peo-
pie Of the agricultural districts, are heartily
sick and tired Of this excessive taxation. An
average tar Of IS per cent. on everything that
zoe eat, drink, ,cear, or otherwise CONSUME,
is likely, in the course Of time, to reach the
pocket Of ere1y citizen, and to awaken him
to consciousness that he is being robbed
most numerically.
1t has reached the pockets of every
citizen. That is what is troubling our
Sleepy Eye man. 1t is represented all
over the West by impoverished farmers
and distressed merchants by debt and
suffering everywhere.
And yet Joseph Medill would have us
support the party that authorizes and
persists in inflicting this "unmerciiul
robbery" In 1871 the editor of this
paper tried the experiment of obtaining
, Tariff reform inside TIE lines Of the Re
publican party. We went into tn.
Republican State Convention and drew
Revenue Tariff platform which va
unanimously adopted. What Was tn;
result. The very next year the Ma
tional Republican Convention met il
: Philadelphia and adopted this plank:
1.-THE annual revenues
should be raised by duties on imports
/: the duties of which should be so adjust
: ed as to aid in securing remunerativ
, wages to labor.
!. Here Was the whole Protective doc
t trine in nutshell. Col. Forney sal
0 in the Philadelphia Press, The plat
). form takes PRONOUNCED GROUND in faro
S Of Protective Tariff. There is no
e even = suspicion Of Fres-trads heres
= about this"
{ And the st. Paul Press said "Whs
y are the men who believe in the heres
e Of Free-trade' going to do about it :
#! We had to choose between deserving on
n principles or deserving our party. IN
n Of the two evils We chose the least.
Ie Now We want each Of our readers ,
q make of himself . missionary to z:
plain these things to his Republics
Y neighbers. Show them what it is keel
e them poor. Show them that the R
It publican party = the high-tari6 part
Show them that even in the mannfa
turing districts of the east, (accordir
1a