The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-05-08
THE FARMERS OUTLOOK.

In its struggle to produce free-trade argu-
ments the Louisville Courier-J ournal mad
vertently furnishes facts strongly in favor of
continued protection. Its last labor in its
favorite field is alleged to be in behalf of the
American farmer. Here is the way the jere-
miad begins:
1.-THE farmers produce all but an insignif-
| cant portion of our exports. The infant
manufacturers with all their subsidies have
not increased their portion to any apprecia-
! Bile extent during the existence of the tariff,
The unprotected farmer, the plundered
farmer, the tax-ridden farmer, with his wheat
and corn, his cotton and his cattle, not only
supplies the home market, but each year
sends to Europe the means to pay for our
imports and bring some gold besides"
While the farmer produces all but an in
significant portion of our exports. it is but
an insignificant portion of what he produces
that he exports. The 'infant manufacturers"
at which free trade theorists are pleased
to sneer, help, at least, to make
population that consumes at home
80 per cent. of the farm products
while but 10 per cent. is exported. There is
|
can increase the foreign demand for their
surplussage, i. e., to undersell their compel
itors. The establishment of free trade in
America, while Gripping and killing Ameri-
can industries would not increase the for
eign demand for wheat and corn to the
amount of per cent. The home demand
would be lessened, and home competition
increased. The price of wheat and corn
would be materially reduced without any
corresponding benefit
| In consonance with the spirit of free trade
| the Courier Journal declares that we are
obliged to accept lower prices for our grain
| because we are not allowed TO barter Both
are antiquated and obsolete ideas. The idea
of bartering in these days is original once
more. He who consigns shipload of grain
to Liverpool, we suppose, higgles with shop
keepers there seeing how many pairs of bal
briggan hose he can get for his cargo, how
many bolts of Manchester prints or crates of
pottery from Stoke-on-Trent. Liverpool
grain-dealers keep stocks of these goods in
one end of their warehouses, and quite a
lively trade is kept up by Yankee merchants
who come there to barter.
| Free-trade papers manifest the liveliest
concern about the ten per cent that farmers
sell abroad. Were they half as solictous
| about the ninety per cent. sold at home it
| need not be many years until it would be a
matter of Indifference whether we sent a
bushel of grain abroad. Quoting from the
Courier-Journal, it appears that "the ex-
creasing. In 1875 they amounted only to L.
100000 bushels; in 1876 to 4, 600 900; in 1877-78
to IL, 900 900; in 1878-79 year of famine, it
| fell to $500, 900, but in 1882 it exceeded
| 100000 How long will it be until India
shall furnish the entire 800o0,000 annually
imported by Great Britain, and what then
shall the American farmer do? Would it
not be better to anticipate, and to
render ourselves able to consume our own
products? We can turn back the grain-laden
fleets of India only by underselling them. 1t
| is folly to talk of old-fashioned bartering in
this age of the world Our grain goes to
England in steamships, and the pay for it
returns by lightning. The 'coonskin COM
merce of Kentucky is thing of the past
The driving North and the awakening South
are far ahead Of that, and can never go back
| to such primitive barbarism
THE Courier-Journals latest article is based
on letter from J, W. Bookwalter ESQ.,, re-
cent Democratic candidate for Governor of