The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-10-31
ATTENTION, FARMERS!
A Canadian Victim of Free Trade
Talks About Protection.
Why He Envles the Protected
Farmer i'm This Country.


sleeping on bed, the sheets, blankets, and
mattresses of which would have been taxed
from 90 to $50 per cent. had they been I'M
ported from foreign country. But they are
home made, and his dreams have not been
disturbed by the free-trade bugbear that PRO
tectio1 raises tho price of the home manu-
factured article up to at least the price of the
imported article plus the import duty" Mr..
David A. Wells and other agents Of the
Leeds and Manchester manufacturers once
tried to brighten him with this bogy; but
experience has taught him that it is only a
make believe.
WHAT THE FARMER SEES.
There is an import duty Of eight cents
yard on cotton sheeting, but he buys it from
the cotton factory in bis market town at
seven cents yard, and sees enormous guam
titles of 1t going to England in competition
with free trade cotton, to Canada, to
South America, and even to Austria
liza Moreover, he knows that it Is to that
import duty ha owes the establishment OF the
neighbaring cotton factory, whose opera
tives consume his produce and give him
prof able home market for rotation crops.
The same is true of his blsnkets and mai
tress: indeed he is well satisfied with his
bed. 1t is home made it cost him II any
thing less than an imported article; and It's
manufacture has given employment 10 ar
tisans who buy the products OF his farm
almost direct from his wagon.
THE TARIFF DOES NOT TAX HIM.
He proceeds to put on his clothes, nothing
alarmed because there is 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 gore 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 it is breakfast
time. He has no hard feelings against the
clock merely because foreign clocks are
taxed IS per cen& on the contrary 1t re-
minds him of the clock factories OF Con-
necticut and the thousands of hands to whom
they give employment, and who In their
turn give market and an increased value
to every adjacent farm.
CHEAPEST FARM TOOLS IN THE WORLD.
Breakfast over--by the way, American i'm
porters bring his ira direct from China, not
via Montreal or London-he takes to his farm
implements. Foreign implements, such as
spades, shovels, hoes, forks, rakes, etc., are
taxed 35 per cent. wooden pals, tubs, churns,
etc., 30 per cent. ard plows, harrows, seed
sewers, culJieators, mowers, respers. thresh
ing machines, etc., 80 per cent. ard 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
JicnnuarpA hnWrynr lint this is not
Home factor es have sprung up everywhere
and the keen competition has not only kent
down prices, hut melted the inventive genius
OF the American mechanic, so that ankee
farm implements have become the cheapest
and the best in the world. The heavy and
cum brous English machines are being crfven
from forelgn markets, and even from the
English market itself, which Mccormick Of
Chicago has invaded with great success. In
fac, when our farmer contemplates the
growth and proportion of this INDUSTRY. it
occurs to him that tho English agents
who lobbiet aud even bribed poll.
t,ciaps and newsp pers to oppose
the nigh tariff were not actuated 50
much by regard for the condition of the
Yankee farmer as by the consciousness that
protection would deprive them of the Ameri-
can market aud bv tbe fear that it would IN
the long run maKe the YANKEE manufacturer
formidable rival iu other markets.
WHAT HE TtlNkS w Hll1E Al w URN.
This is what the farmer thinks as he works
in his flelts and about his barnyard during
the forenoon. He IS started out of his reverie
by a foot 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
appetite when he remembers that furniture,
such as the chair h l. sitting on. the table al
which lie is eating and the dresser where the
dishes are stored is taxed 35 per cent. when
tstablish hundreds of furniture factories and
to give employment to tens of thousands of
mechanics throughout he Union, and in this
wy has te Gifted him, for the home manu-
fac urer is everywhere The farmers best
friend.
ON HIS WAY TO MARKET.
After dinner he sets out for the market
town, and as he journeys thither he pities the
Canadian farmer. who, as rule, has to dis
pose of bis produce to the middlemen that
stand like row of tax gatherers. each levy
ing his 1.-THE, between the Kanuck farm and
the fereign consumer. He wonders too,
does his old Yankee farmer. how the Cana
dian farms en- ure wheat and barley year
after Year and rejoices that protection has
given him home market to which he can
supply elm, st every variety of crop. He is
following his tram of thought when he enters
the market town az o'clock, aud his sym.
pstby for the Canadian farmer is deepened
as he S. a. troops of Canafian operatives re
turning to the factories from their dinner.
woRKINGMEN DON'T GO TO CANADA.
al wonder" he communes, 'if the
Kauucl farmer ever GEES crowd of
Yankee operatives going to work In
Canadian factory9 Guess not. Then
what do free traders mean by arguing that
with, ruins industry, willie free trade. with
builds it up and makes nation greatp If
French Canadians be at work In Montreal,
and would not our Yankee mechanics be
pouring over there alsos How is it, We free
trade theorists, that the census of 1870
showed that Canada, with 100000 of pep
pie, had sent us nearly 100000, or one in
eight, of her childrenf And how Is 1t that
the Canadian census of 1870 showed that we,
with ten times four millions, had sent Can
ada only 5000 YankeesP
WHAT HE GETS FOR HIS PRODUCE.
By this time he has reached the store, and
soon disposes of his wheat tomatoes, car
rots, potatoes, etc With the money re-
ceived in payment he makes his little pur-
chases, and finds no small consolation in
knowing that almost every dollar that he
pays out goes to home industries Out
siders get nothing except for raw articles
he Tt1ff aA INF ,.l~