Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-04-27

count for the absurd proposition of the
able and distinguished gentleman from
Kentucky, Mr.. Carlisle, who the Other
day undertook to support the PROPOSE.
tion that protection did not benefit the
home market. because within the last
few years, stimulated by short crops
and high prices, our agricultural exports
had not relatively diminished under a
protective tariff. But experience teaches
us that the amount of agricultural pro-
ducts exported is no absolute measure
of the extent or activity of the home
market or of the profitableness of farm
ing production. Within the last three
years the short crops in Europe has so
increased the demand that our export of
wheat and corn has far exceeded the
usual relative amount. Besides it is no
proof of the general proposition for the
further fact that our vast agricultural
production with large crops for few
years past is far in advance of fair pro-
portion, compared with our undeveloped
manufacturing industries.
Our whole agricultural production for
the year 1880 was more t!ian S9,000,000,-
900; our whole manufactures, as estima-
ted, not more than S5,000.000,000; so
that at present our home market, like
our manufacturing industry. is yet in its
infancy. and vet that home market con-
sumes nearly ninety-twO per cent. of our
vast farming produces, leaving out cot
ton and tobacco, and "a per cent. of our
manufactured products. But the amount
consumed by the home demand is no
real standard of the relative value of the
h,n nd mar Eat ha
cost of transportation and its risks must
always be set against the foreign mar
ket. The instability and uncertainty are
a ways to US essential and necessary
characteristics of our European market.
Every year that demand varies. An
harvest there leaves US with
out foreign demand. Our only reliance
for full demand in the European mar
kets for our vast raw products of the
farm depends maialy on the chances of
war, famine, or pestilence. No safe or
prosperous agriculture can exist, or ever
did exist, without the reliance of a reg
ular, healthy home demand. The farmer,
more than almost any other producer,
needs stability in the demands of his
market, for his investments must be
made a year or more in advance. He
cannot change his crop planted six
or year before to meet the fiuc-
tuations of demands for different pro-
duct caused by the multiform vicissi-
tudes of foreign demand from a bad
harvest, expected to be a full and sup
plying one up to the very week of its
failure. a steady, uniform, reliable Eu-
ropean market for American farm pro-
ducts is an absolute impossibility. II
changes with every prolonged summer
fog in England and every rain-storm on
the shores of the Baltic. 1t hangs not
only on foreign harVests, but on treaties
and tariffs, on disasters and diplomacy,
on rain and revolution. The farmer
meets uncertainty enough in the varied
chances of drought and food, of heat
and cold, of rust and weeyil, of short
crops. add low priefS ssa !, d II
5hes, Without driving lim TO the
gambling, desperate hazard of
seeking a weekly changing market 5000
miles from home. 1t is of value as an
outlet for our surplus of food products,
but as reliance of our vast possibilities
it is delusiOn and failure. This is
the more SO because the price of the
whole crop is fixed by the small portion
of it exported.
MIR. Cpdegraff here presented tables
by the Bureau OF Statistics,
the quantity of wheat and corn
produced and imported and the per
centage exported each year from 1S49 to
1880, and also tables showing the total
production of cereals in the United
States and their value each year from
1858 to 1878, and continued as follows:
Here we are confronted by the as
fact that the American farmer
for his crops of 1878, amount
ing to 2,302, 100000 bushels, the sum of
1914, 100000. or about l22,000,000 less
than in 1877, when his crop was less in
quantity by 124,000,00O bushels, and
5000, O,0OO,OC less than 1868 or 1874, when
his crop was only 1,450,0O0,000 bushels.
The average home price of wheat was
SLAP in 1868. S1.25 in 1871, Sl.15 in 1878,
S1.O3 in 1876, $10S in 1877, ard S0.77 in
1878, showing, in spite of the growing
demand from Europe, a steady decline
out of proportion with the
increase of production. Thus the crop
Of 1878, which was larger in quantity
than that of 1877 by per cent, was less
in value by 81 per cent. Now the un-
certainty of the market for these farm
products was largely owing to the
changing and uncertain demand of the
European market during this time. In
some of these years the scarcity of food |
IN foreign countries made an unusual
demand for our food products. But to
realize how utterly uncertain that de-
mand is, the American farmer has only
to remember that an abundant European
harvest leaves him dependent almost
wholly on the home market. This is the
only safe dependence of the American
farmer, and whatever enlarges and
builds it up helps to make sure, and re-
and independent this great
industry, American agriculture, which
is the nursing mother of all our indus
tries.
The prices of our commodities in a
foreign country is compelled to adjust
itself to the lower purchasing power of
the European masses, while the basis of
our own market is the largely greater
power of the American
masses. At the same time the better
of our labor and a gradual
increase of our manufacturing popula-
ton, with the consequent competition,
gives to the whole people an abundant
supply of manufactured goods at prices
lower than can be fairly afforded by any
foreign commerce.
The gentleman from New York, (Mr.
Hewitt,) while advocating free trade,
or accidentally stated a
truth which to me seems one of the
most conclusive reasons why American
farmers dare not rely on the foreign
market, which is the Elyseum of free
traders. He says: ..
Our great products are agriculture. In years
of famine the world will take all we have to
spare; in years of plenty there will be a sur
plus for which there is no foreign outlet.
And this is the reliance to which
free-trrde theories commend us as the
dependence of our immense agriculture.
L u. I.--A Al