National Republican., 1883-02-27
THE FARMER.
What Protective Tariff Does for Him
A Canadian Victim OF Free Trade EN-
vies His Condition.

ing tolerably refreshed. True, he has been
sleeping on bed, the sheets, blankets, and
mattresses Of which would have been taxed
from 60 to $50 per cent. had they been i'm
ported from q foreign country. But they are
home made, and his dreams have not been dis
turbed by the free trade bugbear that pro
lection raises the price of the home manufac-
tured article up TO at least the price of the
imported article plus the import duty" Mr..
David A. Wells and othor agents Of the Leeds
and Manchester manufacturers once tried
to frighten him with this bogy; but
experience has taught him that it is only
make believe. There is an import
duty of eight cents yard on cotton sheeting
but he buys IL from the cotton factory in his
market town at seven cents yard, and sees
enormous quantities Of it going to England
in competition with free trade cotton, to
Canada, TO South America and even to Aus
tralia. Moreover, he knows that IL is to that
import duty he owes the establishment of the
neighboring cotton factory, whose operatives
consume his produce and give him profta-
BILE home market for rotation crops. The
same is true of his blankets and mattress
indeed he is well satisfied with his bed. 1t is
home made; 1t cost him If anything less than
an imported article; and its manufacture has
given employment TO artisans who buy the
products of his farm almost direct from his
wagon.
He proceeds TO put on his clothes, nothing
alarmed because there is a heavy import duty
on foreign tweed cloths. felt hats, boots, and
cotton shirts. His suit from head to foot is
Of American make; the profits of its manu-
facture have gone to enrich the American
people, and he thinks this better for him than
If his tweed coat had come from the west of
England his hat from Nottingham, his shirt
from Manchester, and his boots from Stock
port. The clock tells him that 1t is breakf fast
time. He has no hard feelings against the
. | qlnaE unaraly hnoanGa fOraion plnplfa I'm xa1
35 per cent. on the contrary 1t reminds him of
the clock factories ofsConnecticut and the
thousands Of hands to whom they give en-
ployment, and who in their turn give n mar
ket and an increased value to every adjacent
farm.
Breakfast overly the way American inn
porters bring his tea direct from China, not
via Montreal OF London-he takes to his
farm implements. Foreign implements, such
as spades, shovels, hoes forks, rakes &C., are
taxed 50 per cent; wooden pals, tubs, churns,
&C., 35 per cent; and plows, harrows, seed
sewers, cultivators, mowers, reapers, thresh-
ing machines, &C., 35 per cent; and in 1860,
when the battle of the Morrill, tariff was
being fought in congress, the agents of the
great Bedford and Leicester firms predicted
that an import duty on their goods would
ruin farming in the United States. He has
discovered, however, that this is not true.
Home factories have sprung up everywhere,
and the keen competition has not only kept
down prices, but melted the inventive genius of
the American mechanic, so that Yankee farm
implements have become the cheapest and the
best in the world. The heavy and cumbrous
English machines are being driven from for
eign markets, and even from the English
market itself, which Mccormick, Of Chicago,
has invaded with great success. In fact,
when our farmer c0ntemplates the growth
and proportions of this industry, it occurs TO
him that the English agents, who lobbied and
III. 10.
pose the high tariff, were not actuated SO
much by regard for the condition of the
Yankee farmer as by the consciousness that
protection would deprive them of the Ameri-
can market, and by the fear that it would in
the long run make the Yankee manufacturer
q formidable rival in other markets.
This is what the farmer thinks as he works
in his fields and about his barnyard during
tho forenoon. He is started out of his reverie
by toot of the dinner horn, and sits down
at the table nothing put out by the reflection
that tin horns of foreign make are taxed about
two cents each. Neither does he lose his ap-
petite when he remembers that furniture
such us the chair he is sitting on, the table at
which he is eating, and the dresser where the
dishes are stored, is taxed 30 per cent. when
of foreign make This duty has helped to
establish hundreds of furniture factories and
to give employment to tens Of thousands of
mechanics throughout the union, and in this
ficturer is everywhere the farmers best
friend.
After dinner he sets out for the market
town, and rs he journeys thither he pities the
Canadian farmer, who as rule, has to dis
pose of his produce to the middlemen that
stand like row of tax gathorers, each levy
ing his 1.-THE, between the Kanuck farm and
the foreign consumer. He wonders, too, does
this old Yankee farmer, how the Canadian
farms endure wheat and barley year after year,
and rejOices that protection has given him
home market to which he can supply almost
every variety of crop. He is following his
train of thought when he enters the market
town at o'clock, and his sympathy for the
Canadian farmer is deepened as he sees troops
of Canadian operatives returning to the fac
tories from their dinner. 81 WONDER" he
communes, if the Kanuck farmer ever sees
q crowd of Yankee operatives going to work
in Canadian factory2 Guess not. Then
what do free traders mean by arguing that
protection, such as we Yankees are cursed
with, ruins industry, while free trade, with
which the Kanucks have long been blessed.
builds it up and makes q nation greatP If
that were so would not these active little
French Canadians be at work in Montreal, and
would not our Yankee mechanics be pouring
over there also? How is it, yo free trade the
Orists, that the census of 1870 showed that
Canada, with 100000 of people, had sent us
nearly 100000, or one in eight, of her chill
dren3 And how is it that the Canadian CEN
sus of 1870 showed that we, with ten times
four millions, had sent Canada only 10000
Yankees ?"
By this time he has reached the store, and
soon disposes of his wheat tomatoes, carrots
potatoes, &c. With the money received in
payment he makes his little purchases and
finds no small consolation in knowing that
almost every dollar he pays out goes to home
Industries. Outsiders get nothing except for
raw articles the United States cannot pro-
duce such as tea and coffee. Even If /
have TO pay little more for some of my pur-
chases," he says to himself it is satisfactory
to know the money will be kept in the coun-
try, and paid out again for the produce l
grow, and the beef, mutton, and pork l
raise"
He thinks this over as he travels home
ward, and talks protection VS.. free trade with
his sons in the evening One of them works
on the farm, and the others are at trades in
the town-Canada has had no attractions for
them. "Hou boys are all here" says the
old man, land l guess that is pretty good
evidence that this is a habitable country.
protection and ALL If you had gone to
Canada or England, and settled there, and
were writing over for your friends
and acquaintances to join you, as the
half million Canadians and the hun
dreds of thousands of Englishmen in the
states do, l should be inclined to suspect some-
thing wrong. But here We are, drawing
thousands of immigrants every year from
, free trade countries, while retaining our own
folks at home paying OFF our war debt rap
| Il ag.1 1u N.,Nn ann MN