The farmers' vindicator., 1874-09-18

hands OF the few at the expense OF the
general interests and prosperity Of the
many. And also, while those en-
gagged in every character of manufac-
ture, master and man, are three times
less in number than the farmers alone,
and while the amount of capital in
vested by the farmers is six times
more than the manufacturers, yet the
gross values produced by the manu-
facturer is estimated as ten times that
produced by the farmers. The farm
er's labor yielding him only an aver
age of FIVE per cent. at most, while
the manufacturer glories in torty.fve
The figures of that wonderful table
also show that in every 500 Of manu-
factured goods you buy, you pay not
only the cost of the materials used
and the wages of the labor employed,
but from $25 to $50 to the capitalist.
How happens it, do you askS The
answer is plain, the manufacturer is
the pet of the Government, the pam
pered child of protective tariffs, andlike
all other pet children, demands more
the more it gets. Agriculture is made
to pay for what it does not consume,
pay for that which represents no
value, that the manufacturer may
thrive, and prosper, and concentrate,
and corrupt. You are all made to
pay the bonus to the home manufac-
turer in the shape Of the protective
duty laid by the Government on the
imported article of the same grade,
with the merchants profits added
increasing the price of what you buy
and reducing the price Of what you
sell.
THIS INsATIATE MONSTER
is the growth of accident, or rather of
the timid policy Of new government.
The fathers of '87 never dreamed of
what we see and feel to-day. The
Constitution conferred upon Congress
the power to levy taxes alone for the
purpose of providing revenue for the
Government; and examining that fun
damental charter in all its bearings, it
was evidently anticipated that this
revenue would be obtained by direct
taxation, apportioned among the States
according to the provisions made for
such purpose therein. In the first
Congress, however, while the general
view was favorable to free trade and
direct taxation, it was deemed prudent,
as the views of the old world set
strongly that way then, to experiment
with tariff for revenue for seven
years, led thereto more particularly
from the fact that it was feared, from
the intense feeling of States rights by
the early patriots, that the people
would not accept, without trouble,
a direct taxation on the States for the
support of the general Government.
The first tariff was limited toseven years,
and the duty imposed on foreign wool
and cotton goods, in order to encourage
our infant industries, was only FIVE
per cent. 1t was a great blunder Of
our fathers, this tariff experiment;
for since that day the tariff has been
altered and amended no less than
forty times, and the average duty i'm
posed to-day, since these manufactur-
ing industries have become full grown
and the masters of the people, is ten
times as great as at first. When it
was the pulling infant at its mothers
breast, five per cent. gave it stomach,
strength and constitution, but now,
when full grown and master Of the
situation, able alone to compete with
he most powerful forces of the world,
he migrate demands, and receives, ten
lines as much-like the leach, having
asted human blood, it must be gorged
o the full.
What have we then2 The manufsc-
urers, the railroad msgnates, and the
ilent and the slippery bankers, in