Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-02-02
Farmers and the Tariff

The senior class of Haverford College
being desirous to have Political Economy
taught them in the most practical manner.
have invited many active business men oil
various callings to lecture before them.
Among these WAS Mr.. James Wood, a
practical farmer OF Hisco. n. Y. who ad-
dressed the students a few evenings since.
upon the tariff, treating it from the stand
point Of a farmer. His remarks were so
sensible that they deserve to be widely
read. and carefully considered We copy
the following from the report of his lee
ture:
Let US take an American farmer as the
representative OF Lis class, who has chiefly
cotton and food products To sell With
freixhts, commissions, insurance and waste
his cotton is worth 20 per cent more in Man
chester than at home. Corn is bulky, and
on its way to feed the Manchester operatives
runs tn. gauntlet of s'curners and other
risks, and when consumed IL worth five times
more than where 1t grew. But when the
farmer buys back the cotton manufactured
into cloth that cora has gone into the cost of
the goods. Tie thus pays dollar or more
for the cotton he sold tor twenty or twenty
Eve cents, and he pays the cost of manutac-
ture, the manufacturers profit, asd the profit
Of the goods besides. Tie finds that he l.
selling "the hide for sixpence and buying
back the tail for shilling" lie resolves to
get some one to make the goods he need.
close BY his home. lie soon finds that these
home manufacturers n, ed other things beside
cotton. wool. wheat aud corn. They want
~
butter. and q thousand other things that he
could never send to the operatives in Man
chester. Thus he has a great variety OF pro-
ductive interests instead of one or two. There
cannot be profitable agriculture in the long
run without 1t. His eggs are no longer ali
in one basket. Ii we thus add one industry
after another to these home manufactures =
community will be established With prodac-
tiou, distribution and consumption perfeetl,
balanced. All are mutually dependent. and
unite in bearing the public burdens. whether
10 be In building roads and sehool-houses. or
paying town, county, State or National taxes.
The men in Manchester never took any hand
In these.
but some one says TO the farmer: II will
cell you all your goods. made abroad, for les.
money than yours now cost you. and sill take
your corn and wheat and cotton and wool in
exchange for them" The farmer asks {;
s'How about my potstocs and other vegets-
bles, and my hay and milk and eggs? Who
will buy my surplus land ? Who will help
pay my tax,sl How shall keep up the
Fertility of my iand9 Your goods may be
cheaper to-day, but soon our meu will have
more capital and will acquire skill with expe
risnce, and will get = little better machinery.
and then they will make better goods than
you're and for less money. They do so no~
with many things. They are paying me good
prices for my water power and my land and
hundred things you don't want. can sf
ford 10 invest money to-day for the good it
will do me to-morrow. mus, decline your
oder. II you persist in sending your goods
here we will put tax upon them and keep it
there ~ long - is necessary TO protect our
home manufacturer" That is the tariff Ques
don from an sgriculturists standpoint. If
the farmer had continued to send his pro-
dncts abroad, instead of . home market for
Ill his various products he would have only
The foreign market for few things in which
His fellow-farmers would compete with him.
and ell the rect of the world trying to under
ell him. Instead of the certain home mar
kss he would have had only the uncertsin
foreign one. where the abundance or scarcity
II The crops in other countries determined
whether he should have any market Al all.
There h . popular error in reference to she
advantages of iore,gn trade. The ancient
e1stee OF Palmyra, Tyre, Alexandria, Con-
eennsinople. Venice aud Genoa grew rich by
toreisu commerce. But this was from goods
tAey bought 70 sell again. upon which they
charged such profits that the consumer paid
hundred fold their original cost; while
modern commerce 10 the Interchange between
natioas, through the medium of money, of
The products OF one for those Of another. and
% coantry buys to sea again, to any consid-
srable extent. except Eag. and. Free Trad