Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-06
The Farmers and the Tariff.


 The farmers who gathered from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania to the grand ex- hibition of cereals, of fruits and of agricul- tural implements at Williams grove, in the last-named State, were sensible men. They listened to both sides of the tariff question, the great living issue of the presidential con test. They heard one Girard Brown, of New York, who wanted raw materials protected
 but the tariff taken off manufactured pro ducts-at least that is the nearest we can come to understanding his argument, as re- ported in the Baltimore American Then followed Col PioIlet, veteran granger, who explained the protection side of the question in language as convincing as it was homely and clearly intelligible. F'I have no fear" he said, 'Eabout the government going to pieces, or the country going to ruin. I have too much faith in the wisdom and integrity of our people to entertain foolish an idea. We want tariff laws. They do not oppress anybody here that ever heard of. The for eigner who brings his goods here and offers them for sale should pay for the privilege.
 All this talk about protection creating mono polies is nonsense. Make a law to exclude manufactured products from other countries, and your talk about creating monopolies would then have at least the merit of con sistency. The farmers understand this q11es- tion and are with me-"
 And we have no doubt they are. Free trade theorists cannot deceive the intelligent and thinking farmers, who read and study to much greater extent than they generally get credit for, and are usually certain to rive at just conclusion, whether in politics or in the jury box. The farmers know that no country was ever ruined by protection, and that, before protection was established as an American policy the States were in dustrialIy at the mercy of Great Britain, just as. since the establishment of a tariff, the periods of greatest commercial depression have been when the tariff was at it's lowest It has been shown to be not the fact that the farmer pays an enhanced price for manufac- tured products on account of protection, while he certainly receives a higher price for his raw material entering into the manufac- ture of cloth and other goods, and has, in the f1ourishing manufacturing cities and viii lages a ready market provided for his corn, his milk, his eggs and his pork, which, but for eastern markets would be almost worth less on his hands, for Europe could not con- sume and does not call for all the surplus products of the West, and Europe does not pay as good prices as the manufacturing dis tricts of the East. To come nearer home take away the manufactures of Rhode Island and what would become of the Rhode Island farmer? He could live, it is true; but he could not sell his milk or vegetables, and sheep culture would be improbable, for there would be no factories to buy the wool, except abroad, and there he would have to. compete with Australia and other great wool producing regions. In word there is no class more directly and vitally interested in the maintenance of high tariff, and the protection of American industry, than the farmers, whether in the West in the middle States or here in New England.