Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-03-04

| lH6uu lOE COGtOu OVAh6
The markets of Mexico, Central and
South America, all naturally belong
to US, aud the present consumption is
q mere bagatelle compared to what 1t
could be made If we would take what
these people have got that we need
in exchange for our cotton manufac-
lures.
Imay be intensely stupid, no doubt
the senator thinks l am, when l assure
him that 1 cannot appreciate such an
argument as he addresses to the plan.
ters and farmers of the south and
west. 1t seems to me to amount to
this: Curtail production, reduce ex.
ports, let yeur. farms rest; you will
wear them cut in your effsrts to make
money too fast. Do not be so greedy.
| You get as much for q little as youdo
for a great deal, anyhow; you do moi
understand your own interests you
have to sell your products in foreign
markets; they regulate the price OF
your whole crop; you now compete
with paupers and free-traders.s We
cannot protect you in that. Quit
your farms; become manufacturers.
Congress will prevent foreign inter
ference with you and give you .
monopoly. of the trade of the United
States. on condition that you will not
expose congress or yourselves by
sending your fabrics abroad and SELL
ing them to the people Of other coun-
tries cheaper than you do at home, or
as cheap as English paupers do; that
would be All unjust discrimination in
favor of foreigners, ana the Ameri-
can consumer might change his men,
Der of congress if he found out how
we were working it; true. all you
new men who quit your farms will
find that a few people we have been
protecting for loDg time have ma
chinery now capable OF doing the
work Of 800, 900, 600 men, and the only
market is what 5000, 900 need; but
you eau quit work for awhile when
the supply exceeds the demand your
machinery will not cost much when
it is idle and your hands will work
cheap rather than starve. Congress
will do its best 20 tax the balance of
the people enough to make 1t proita-
BILE and keep out foreign goods. All
we ask is that you will vote for rep
resentatives and senators who stand
by protection, and denounce all who
oppose us as being bought with Brit
ish gold that scares them. That is
about the argument as l understand
it.
The truth is, the American farmers
could not combine if they would to
control or limit production. They
do not know and cannot know wheth-
or the Lord will bless either them or
other nations with good harvests, or
visit them with scarcity. They can
not combine and pool their issues,
regulate prices and production as as
do under our protective system.
Their interest aud the interest Of the
country require that they should pro-
duce all they can; they are Obliged,
aud every year with our rapidly ill.,
creasing agricultural area stimulated
by unparalleled railroad develop
ment, the success of which depends
upon obtaining the largest possible
amount of freight from the people to
whom they sell their laud, and from
the homestead prescriptions aud other
grants, all of which are valuable only
in proportion to the products they
| bring, they are more and more obhg-
ed to depend on foreign markets
which already regulate the prices of
all u crops. Now, 20 per cent. of
eur cotton and So per cent. of our
| wheat has to find a market abroad ;
the proportion must increase year by
year, and the increase is rendered
much more rapid by the number OF
operatives whe are steadily being
driven out Of employment by the in
creasiug power Of machinery to pro-
duce fabrics that neither eats, drinks,
nor wears anything the farmer raises.
II the 800, 0OO, 600 men its power rep
resents had to be provided for with
farm products, it would be another
and q very different question.
The advocates of high protective
tariffs may sneer at q revenue tariff
but with their. avowal that they in
tend to abolish all internal-revenue
taxes, make whisky and tobacco free
as necessarles for the poor, whose
welfare they have 80 much at heart,
they must not forget that they are
Intensely loyal, and that the faith OF
the nation must be preserved, and
thatin order to provide for the arrears
of pensions fraud and the sinking
fund humbug tho secretary of the
treasury advises congress that reye-
nue. to an amount exceeding S340,000,-
600 must be provided by taxstioi of
some sort for the fiscaLye which be-
gins on the 1st of next July. Look
at this proposition for q minute. Our
fetal imports for 1881 were $642, O0O,-
600, OF which about 1912, OOO, 600,
principally raw materials, such rs
raw silk, raw hides, and necessaries
for the production of protected
fabrics, entered duty free, leaving say
$3.50, 100000 of dutisbles, which at an
average at about As or 46 per cent.
produced 1896, 600, 900 of the revenue
received last year. To allow any
margin at all eli the secretary's esti-
mate of expenditures with internal
revenue abolished we must import
for revenue purposes alone $500 ,OOO,-
600 of dutiable goods, nearly double
the present Importation. and keep MP
the average tax on all at AZ per cent.
and then have less than 500, 600, GOO
surplus, which l think sufficiently
shows the absurdity of the PROPOSE
ton, in the present condition of our
Indebtedness and other necessities OF
ab0llshlng lnternal-revenue taxation.
and the absolute folly Of all sugges.
tions looking to the reduction of our
agricultural experts, which are near
ly nine-teMths of the whole. If we
cease to export fer a year and abolish
internal-revenue taxes, it will take all
the money we have III circulation to
pay for the goods imported and the
duties on them. What will become
then of the much Landed balance of
trade, and what becomes of the now
tariff platform, "That the American
people hereafter intend to keep this
market for themselves 2" But, Mr..
President, the proposition is really
too absurd TO argue; it is like all the
other restrictive processes which have
for their object the taxation of all to
enrich q few.
The senator from Vermont and his as
socrates rejoice when they learn that
Germany is following In the footsteps
OF France in passing laws prohibiting
the introduction INTO that country OF
American manufactures. France now
simply retaliates, because we will no
trade with her on fair terms. She AN
not afford to pay out her money Tor our
goods. She wants to pay tor what she
buVS with what she has tn aeIl If yu1