The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1884-09-04
4 FARMER on THE TARIFF.

a HAhMhh OH THE 1Ah1 TT
Acting in harmony with the faculty's
efforts 10 have political economy taught |
In the most practical manner, the senior |
class of HAverford (PA) college invited |
active business men of various callings |
20 lecture there on the tariff question |
Two weeks ego Hon. Jonathan Chase, !
of Rhode Island, discussed the subject |
from q maufsctureF's point Of view, he |
being 9 successful manufacturer. At
the last lecture Mr.. James Wood, Of 1t.
Kieco, N. Y, 6 practical farmer, treated |
IL from . farmers point Of view There |
WAS large and Interesting attendance
of students aAd others. Afier explaining |
why many college professors, with .
scientific longing 10 establish an exact
science, incline 10 free trade and iaVOr
the objects OF the Golden club, Mr..
Wood continued IL substance as follows:
Let Us take an American farmer &c
the representative ef his class, who has
chief cotton and food products TO sell.
With freiGhts, commissions, insurance
and waste his cotton Is worth 20 per cent
more in Manchester than at home. Corn
Is bulky, and on its way tOEeod the Man
chester operatives, runs the gauntlet OF
s'corners' and other risks, and
and when consumed Is worth I'VE times
more than where 1t grew. But when
the fsrmer buys back the cotton manu-
featured into cloth that corn has gone
Into the cost OF the goods. HeIhus pays
q dollar or more for the cotton he sold |
at eighty cents, and dollar or more for
the corn he sold for twenty or twenty
i've cents, aud he pays the Gust Of man.
ufActure, the manufacturers profit, and
the freight on the sgoOds besides. He
finds that he is selling 1.-The hide for six
pence and buying back the
tail for shilling" He
resolves TO get some one tO make the
goods be needs close by homo. He soon
finds that these home manufacturers
need other things beside cotton, weol,
wheat and corn. They want land to
build upon, vegetables, milk aud butter,
and 9 thousand other things that he
could never send 20 the operatives IN
Manchester. Thus he has great variety
of productive interests instead OF one or
two There cannot be . profitable agri-
culture without II. His eggs are no
longer all IN one basket. If We thus add
one Industry after another to these home
manufacture q community will be es-
tablished with production, distribution
and consumP tion perfectly balanced.
All are mutually dependent, aud unite
IN bearing the public burden, whether it
be in building roads and school houses,
or paying town, cnuLIy state or national
taxes. The men in Manchester never
took any hand 10 these.
But some one says To the larmCr: al
will sell out all your goods, made
ohw ahaF
cost you, and will take your corn and
wheat and cotton and wool in exchange
for them" The former asks: How
about my potatoes and other vegetables
and my hay and milk and eggs? Who
will buy my surplus land! Who will
help pay my taxes? How shall / keep
up the fertility of my land? Your
goods may be cheaper to-day, bat soon
our men will have more capital and will
acquire more skill with experience, and
will get q little better machinery, and
then they will make better goods than
YOURS and for less money. They do 30
now with many things. They are pay
ing me good prices for my water power
and my land and hundred things you
don't want. can afford to invest
money to day foa the good it will do me
tomorrow. must decline your
offer. Ii you persist In sending
your goods here We will put tax upon
them and keep it there as long as 1t Is
necessary to protect our home manufac-
turercrs." This is the tariff question
from an agriculturaliss's standpoint If
the farmer had continued TO send his
products abroad, instead of home mar
ket for all has various products, he would
haYe only the foreign market for q few
things IN which his fellow farmers would
compete with him and with all the rest
of the world, trying to undersell him.
Instead of the certain home market he
would have had only the uncertain for
eign one, where the abundance or
scarcity Of crops in other countries de-
termined whether he should have any
market at all.
There Is a popular error In reference
to the advantages of foreign trade. The
ancient cities of Palmyra. Tyre. Alexan-
dris, COnstantinople, Venice and Genoa
grew rich by foreign commerce. But
this was from goods they bought TO sell
| again, upon which they charged such
profits that the consumer paid 8
hundred fold their original cost; while
modern commerce is the interchange be-
tween nations, through the medium of
money, Of the products of one for those
| of another, and no country buys to sell
again to any considerable extent, except
| England. Free traders talk of mankind
as one nation, and say that free trade is
"nAtural" and that protection is "unna-
tural." Is il natural" for q nation to
have its farms on one side of the globe
and its workshops on the other? Is it
natural" to send cotton and wool halt
round the world and then bring them
back sgain? With unlimited beds Of
iron ores and fields of coal is IL "natur-
al" to bring our railroads and other sup
plies of iron from across the ocean :?
With a climate and soil fitted to grow
all kinds of food, ls it natural" TO ex =
haust them In growing but two or three
With patent Office attesting the inven
tive genius and mechanical skill of the
people, is It natural" to compel them
to grow only raw products for English
skill TO manipulatee