The Wichita city eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1872-1883, 1883-02-22
rAcrs FOR FARMERS.

Hon. Dudley Haskell made speech In the
House. on the tariff question. which was
published In the Record Of February LIST,
which VIC would like every farmer in the
land to read. The writer was in w ashing-
ton at the time and knows that MIR. Haskell
was listened to with marked attention and
that his speech was highly eulogized by
friends and foes After showing, by over
whelming evidence, that, running through
the whole history OF the country, the eras OF
so-callcd free trade were marked by de-
preston and poverty among all classes, and
the eras when we were living under pro-
tectiye policy the country and all the people
thereof were prosperous, and after showing
| what the views Of our best statesmen had
been during all this time, Mr.. Haskell closed
rs follows:
| The ground taken by these statesmen in
behalf Of protection has been to the effect
that il labor was drawn away from agricul.
ture, to which under the influence Of our
rich soils and salubrious and varied climate
it naturally and strongly tends, and turned
into other channels, it would produce the
twofold effect of reducing the inevitable
oyercompetition in agricultural products
and of creating at the very doors Of the
farmers large and never-failing home mar
ket not only for his expOrtable, but his non
exportable or perishabe, products. No one
will deny that protection has stimulated
manufactures and that labor has been d.
verted from agriculture, to what extent and
to what result we will next consider, and
determine from the irresistible logic offacts,
uncontroverted and nncontrovertible,
whether the intent of the fathers, through
the agency of protection, has brought forth
fruit.
In 1910 the number Of persons engaged in
agriculture was s,7l7 ,53G; in 1880 the num-
Der was 1910, 493; population Of the United
States in 1850, 80, 155,7s3.
1t will be seen that from 1S40 to 1880 the
number Of persons engaged in agriculture
had a little more than doubled, while the
total population OF the United States from
1910 to 1880 had nearly trebled.
In other words to use simple fractions, in
1910 each farmer had of neighbors, non-pro-
ducers Of agricultural products, TO buy his
produce, 90 persons; in 1880, he had A.
persons who were consumers Of his pro-
ducts, an enormous increase in demand OF
nearly 80 per cent. Every farmer realizes
that supply and demand regulates the price
of his products as it regulates all others,
and he to-day finds at home demand 30 per
cent. greater for his products than the de-
mand of 1140.
Take another view OF the result OF pro-
lection, as shown by the census OF 1850. as
against the "tariff for revenue" period OF
1910. Had the Nation been remanded to the
productions of agriculture for support to
the same extent as it was in 1910, and had
the number of farmers increased ms the total
population increased, there would now be
in the United States 5000 900 more persons
engaged in agriculture than there are. The
careful attention of our farmers IL called to
this fact, and 1 leave them to answer as to
what effect this work and produce Of 1000
600 OF additional farmers would have on the
price of products, when we take into con.
sidcration market no larger than it i,
now.
Again, the conditions of the country now
as compared with 1s40, after nearly forty
years of protective policy, is simply this:
The farming interest Of to-day has in the
United States of consumers, non-producers
of agricultural products, not competitors
with it, population of nearly seventeen
millions more than il would have had had
the ratio of producers and consumers Of
1870 been continued.
Will any one in the light OF these facts
sneer at this "home market Of seventeen
millions. Our agricultural product, estimat
ed, for the year 1882 amounts to S7,5O0,0OO,
600 in round numbers. Our expectations oil
these products amounts to 5000, ,OOO-s
per cent. only exported, 92 per cent. con
sumed at home. The statesmen of the pasl
saw in their day farmers produce, under .
free trade policy, unstable at any price
We see steady demand at living prices fol
anything and everything edible that the
farmer can produce, while the prices of al
manufactured articles tend lower and lower
every year.
What better vindication can be had OF the
wisdom and forethought Of the early fathers
of protection who numbered in their ranks
the first President OF the United States, ant
that grand statesman and delineator Of the
American economic system, our Henry
| Clay of the West TGreat applause1