Morning journal and courier., 1884-06-19
COMMUNICATIONS.

Some So-Galled Arguments for Free Trade Examined.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: The New Haven Register has of lete pub lished several letters from MT. J. B. Sargent, who has become a militant apostle of free trade. Recently Mir. Sargent has pictured the golden days of plenty which Connecti- cut farmers once knew, but which he would have us believe have departed ::on account of . protective tariff. He peaks pathet;cslly ol some ''new forsaken farms" and of the old times when their ''old hills were covered with fattening cattle Tn hisSsales," he says, 'the Connecticut farmer is slave to the competition of the West and in his pur- chases slave to a high protective tariff. '' And again, ''Connecticut farmers will be the equals in rosperity with the farmers of any country when we have free trade"
 What are the simple facts? If the Connec- ticut farmer hes any beef to sell to-day, he gets at least twice es mach for 1t as he did fifty years ago. That as many cattle are not
 fattened OR our hills now as then, is due not to protection, but to the fact that many grazing fields upon our Connecticut hills are impoverished, and in many cases five cattle cannot find sufficient pasturage in the same fields where twenty five ones luxuriated- Wheat and corn are not as profitable crops in Connecticut t5-day as on the new and fertile fields Of the West, but free trade would hardly make them so MT. Sargent and his free trade friends would have our mechanics believe that if, as 8 result of free trade, their wages should be lessened, they would still be the gathers, because they could then buy necessary articles of consumption at reduced prices. If this is true, what encour- aeemsnt is presented to Connecticut farmers who now get at least twice as much for their potatoes, butter, cheese, poultry, eggs. fruit ara uar7an ar06u0kS th6V did V6aFS ago, while they pay not more than half as much for cotton cloth and innumerable other articles now made in New England factories built up under protective tariff as they paid before the existence of these mills2
 There ars those who remember the time whom New England farmers wife was glad ts exchange pound of butter for 8 pound of sugar. Nov she can obtain four pounds of the latter for one of the former, in spite of the fact that the latter is subjected to the payment of duties which operate protectlvely to the Louisiana planter, as well as to the owner of New England maple grove or sorghum field
 While the new and fertile fields of the West present such facilities for cattle raising and the production of the cereals, 1t IS not likely that old Connecticut will enter into &C., tive competition in the attempt to supply these to s'the markets of the world" If the Connecticut farmersS can be permitted to retain the market for their produce which they now have in our cities and factory will Isoes. they will be better pleased than if half of New England's manufacturing establish nasnss shall be closed and their operatives forced to enter into agricultural competition.
 Perhaps the ambition of a few rich mill owners would be gratiied if smaller or hnan- eially weaker competing establishments should be closed, while they might continue on with the cheap labor which they SO earn estlv desire and which they might then ob- tain in abundance.
 A CONNECTICUT FARMEBs WIFE.