The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-01-17
REPUBLICAN CITY TICKET.


IA Farmer" asks the INTELLIGENCE 10
ne kind enough to tell him what protection
the farmer gets from a protective tarin'
We are very.glad.to oblige our friend: we
do not hope in short space to tell all tha'
l. TO be told, but a few facts will perhaps
satisfy our correspondent for tbepresent
First let us see what protection the agri'
crl,prist has on his products. Following
me wise theory OF protective tariff a da,
40 NJ 90 cents bushel is put on all
foreigp wheat entering this country; 10
cents bushel on corn; Is cents o
bnsbel on rye: 10 cents bushel on oats
* cents bushel on barley; 4 cents
a Mound on butter and cheese; 10 cents
a bushel on potatoes; poultry loper cent
Of yalue-slO worth pays one dollar duty
meas and beans 10 10 20 per cent; to-
baceo. unmanuiactured, IS cents
ner poupd, unstemmed, so cents; sugar
oto 5 cents per pound according 10
Grade; live animals, horses, cows,
bulls, oxen, calves, sheep and
swine, except for breeding purposes,
20 per cent; beef and pork, one
cent a pound; mutton, 10 per cent; wool
from 10 to l2 cents a pound and from 10 to
ls per cent in value added; hay 20 per
cent To this should be added wood In It's
manufactured state and the various sta
ses Of manufacture performed upon
the ground. This is one feature OF 1.-THE pro-
lection extended to the agricultural inter
est.
Another and important feature Is that
the American farmer is protected by q
home market for what he raises. Except
cotton and tobacco, more than 30 per cent
OF our farm products are consumed at
home. The tariff which protects the
American manufacturer by enabling him to
hold his home market protects the farmer
by giving him as consumers OF his products
those Of his countrymen who are engaged
in the mills and workshops. Destroy
the manufacturing industries OF this
country and two things happen: The
American workman who has been
consuming what the farmer raises no
longer has money to buy; he takes to mans
primitive employment, seeks his living
from the soil, and SO becomes a competitor
with the farmer instead Of being his Gus
toner; or, he takes to the road as tramp.
There would be more men engaged in
filling and fewer to buy the fruits OF the soil
more to sell and fewer to buy-a glutted
market with all that goes with 1t.
To illustrate this point on asmall scale:
Farm land in the. vicinity Of Wheeling
is worth from $50 to 500 an acre-some
may be held higher. The average value
of land in West Virginia is hardly worth
more than $50 per acre. Laid near
Wheeling has the advantage OF steady
home market-our people must be fed,
and they have the money to pay for what
they need. Tho industries Of Wheeling
make the city. Suppose the city OF Wheel
ing and the thriving settlements about US
to be wiped out oil existence tonight
what would be the value Of firm lands
hereabouts tomorrow morning? They
would still have the whole country for
market, but they would lose their most adj
yantageous market. The same principle
applies to the farming interests oil the
Union and the great markets thereof.
The farmer is benefited by the manu-
iacturer, the man ufacturer by the farmer,
and both by protection to their industries,
So far back as 1916 Thomas Jefferson said:
ITO be independent for the comforts Of
life we must fabricate them for ourselves.
We must now place our manufacturers by
the side Of the agriculturist." The aim OF
free traders Is to array these indispensable
classes against each other.