The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-12-03
The Tariff and Farmers.

That protective duties are a great burden to
all those who are called upon to pay the prices
resulting from them is proved in no way more
conclusively than by the reluctance OF protec-
tlonists themselves to pay these prices. Your
protectlonist thinks that il is very good thing
for the farmers, and for the people generally,
to have to pay protective prices, dW re ne0er
likes to pay them himself: He has no scruplle
in evading the payment of them, If he can do
so BY any possibility. He denies by his own
actions, which speak louder than words, what
he is constantly affirming in words, namely,
that protection Is coed thing. For example,
there is IN Hampshire county, Massachusetts,
button factory, whose founders and promo
ters have always been loud protectonlsts,
proclalming that they could not carry on their
industry nor build up their village, unless the
people were compelled by law to pay protect.
i've prices. Well then they should be willing
TO pay protective prices themselves for the gen
eral good But alas they have not been will
ing! Their practical opinion OF such prices
has been precisely the same as the opinion of
is foreign cloth OF a high quality. 1t is sub
ject to a protective duty under the Wool and
Woollens tariff of 1867. Instead of paying
that duty and thus proving themselves sincere
in their boosted protectlonism, they evade 1t.
They have always evaded 1t. The cloth is
punched, or slit, or cut, In such way as not
to harm il penny for covering buttons, but
so as to enable them to pretend at the custom
house that 1t is damaged cloth, and SO may
come IN without paying the regular duty !!
They have had many controversy with the
Government over this point, but somehow or
other they have gotten the better OF the Gov
eminent, and continue to avoid the blessed du-
ty Here is testimony to the benefits of free
trade that Is worth having Not out of their
mouths but out of their hearts and their &C
tions, do we Judge them. 1t seems that the
sauce for the agricultural goose Is not good for
the protectlonlst gander. This is not an isola
ted instance, and these Gallileans are not sim
ners above all the Gallileans, because they
have done such things. The wOollen manu-
facturers previous to 1867 kept persuading the
wool-growers not to ask tor any protective du
ty on foreign woods. The former did not wish
to pay artificial prices TO the latter. But these
got their backs up at last, and demanded pro-
lection for themselves, and threatened the
manufacturers, that, if it were not accorded
they would move the abolition of the protect
i've duty on cloth. 1t was accordingly reluct
antly accorded IN 1867, and both classes have
been III the slough together for the most part
euer since. A word to the wise is sufficient.
If the farmers see what their true interests are
IN these premises let them act accordingly A
few rustic words in the ears of candidates for
Congress in their respective districts would do
the business effectualy, and once done 1t would
stay done. Whether the farmers see it or not,
it remains fact-that they are the ass that
bears most OF the burden, and eats least of the
hay, of protection. "-Prof arthur Il. Perry.