The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-02-09
Farmer Jones and the Tariff
(MiDn. August

(MtDn. Argus.)
didn't reckon to git round apin
this week. hut YOU see, hogs hez took
a. right smsrt Of u raise an [ thought
I'd turn off a lot q pigs a. will pit
thinner aud thinner on tibet peskv
soft corn. So I thought I'd drop In
an .sresoom nv discoors" ez our
parsor s-Z. HI " l come to lie a free
tr .de,? Well. it was some time arter
7 come We@t tibet I begun ter hev
doubts about the right o. perfection.
was born an ra's d down In Mas
'chusetta, an worked In a fact'ry till
7 q Nv age, and everybody " 3 fer
~ FRICTION there in them days. The
hoss4s tn ked it an told US how, if we
had free trade. they'd hey ter shet up
the mills; aud so. with th-t and =
realm ov H race Greelev's paper, I
lest got chuck full ov: it.. When I
come out West here, the old woman
an the boys an. girls an me, We
brung them notions with u.s.. The
id-e tibet it was III dOoty ter make
our k. ntry independent ov III! other
kentrie. was purity sound doctrine, I
thought, an it was putin this idee
inter practis on my W hook tibet
set me ter thinkin' wheth r, after all
perfection was jest what the Al
mighty had intended fer us. Logic
IL logic, Won know, clear thru ter the
end, AMI figeered tibet II 1t was good
fur a hull LIT u folks ter he indepen-
dent o. their nabers. bein' so was
good fer ennv one Nv them. Thet's
common sense. What's good fer one
is go"d fer all. an wisey w-rsy. as
our school mas'er seZ. An 1t stands
ter reae,n thet, ii the nashun gifts
richer when II makes all 1t uses an
buvs nnthin', then the right Way fer
a man ter get rich is d"in' ov the
same. Me an the boys was purity
handy with the tools and the women
folk. he'd brought 4 l ON and spin
MIN wheel, an we went at II In air
nest ter III Ike ourselves i~nd-rpend-
ent. The clo'h we spun WASN'T hand
sum, but 1t hadn't emmy Alabamy
wool in, an it wore like fern. Our
hummade linen was good If it Was a
little ruffish. Our bnots an shoes
weren't handsun', nutner; We didn't
git jest the right tan on the leather
and we didm't quite get onter the
best way ov fittin' ov 'en, but they
kept out the wei an cold an then We
he'd made them ourselves an tibet
made us feel rale independent. like.
I hahn, got time ter tell you how we
done it all, our blacksmithin' an
wheelritin' an al, hut the fact is, We
didn't huy much Of ennything 'cept
our %groceiits an such things as we
couldn't make Ourselves. But what
struck me most at the erd of the
wear when l got ter figgerin' up
the "balance of trade" Was tibet we
hadn't sold ennything. The fact was
th-t We he'd put in 81 much time q
maxim other things tibet we hedn't
much time ter put Onter the crops.
Our land was new an rich an gave
Jest the biggest kind Ov a return fer
the W. rk put on il, but We he'd been
tryin' to beat the mills In maxim
cloth an the shops In maxim shoes.
an though we hid made both we
hedn't made our crops. As sed, we
didn't count Dur time mucn then,
but when 1 got ter thinkin' what tibet
work would hev brought us II put IN
tibet la d. it struck me, sudden like,
bet bein' independent didn't raw:
So we talked it all over, an the old
woman she sed she he'd all along t Id
me->he hedn't, but she takes a pow
er o'cOmfOrt in sayin' II told you so'
an I do enjoy SEEM her comfortable
tibet it was mighty foolish fer US ter
be irwin ter be- maxim things tibet
other people could make better an
nor We could, 'stid O. putin
our work on somethin' tibet we could
make 4 big profit in doin'. So we
quit rhet kind O. fcOlls,,ness arter
net, but in turnin' the matter over
in my mind an measurin it with the
same XII d q logic l started with, l
hogan ter hev my doubts that the
about b-in' independent o.
furrine,s was sound. An the more
I got thet,if any o. hem fur
liner. hev got ennything tibet they
kin mike cheaper than we kin, an
we want 1t, we'd better a burned
sight make sumthin' they want, an
we kin make cheaper nor they kim
an jet swap, lM kim out ov course
that we git the hest Nv the barxa n.
An then it Come along, kind o.
natural like, tibet I got % thinkin'
thet the gOv'm.ent was hinderln' me
from get in the most fer my labor il
stepped in b tween me an the
furriner an told Us tibet I must pay
the gov'ment from thirtv to ninety
per cent. ~ what the stuff was worth
I could bling it home.
An thet's the way I come to be a
free trader.