, 1884-07-19

which nave entered and lett her harbO
more than doubled in bulk ant
value the whole amount reported by he,
between the settlement of the first Dutcl
colony on the Island of Manhattan anG
the outbreak of the civil war in 1860.
AGRICULTURE AND Il TABIFF.
The agricultural interest is by far the
largest in the nation, and is entitled in
every adjustment of revenue to the first
consideration. Any policy hostile to the
fullest development of agriculture in the
United States must be abandoned. Re.
alizing this fact the opponents of the pre-
sent system of revenue have laborcd- very
earnestly to persuade the farmers of the
United States that they arc robbed by a
protective tariff, and the effort is thus
made to consolidate their vast influence in
favor of free trade. But happily the
farmers of America are intelligent and
cannot be misled by sophistry when con-
elusive facts are before them. They see
plainly that during the past twenty-four
years wealth has not been acquired in one
section or by one interest at the expense
OF another section or another interest.
They see that agricultural states
have made even more rapid progress than
the manufacturing states. The farmers
see that in 1860 Massachusetts and Him
DIS had about the same wealth, between
eight and nine hundred million dollars
each, and that in 1880 Massachusetts had
advanced to twenty-six hundred millions,
while Illinois had advanced to ~thirty-two
hundred millions. They see that New
jersey and Iowa were just equal in popu-
lation in 1860, and that in twenty years
the wealth of New Jersey was increased
by the sun of eight hundred and fifty mil
lions of dollars, while the wealth of Iowa
was increased by the sum of fifteen hun
dred millions. They see that
THE NINE TRADING AGRICULTURAL
states
of the West have grown SO rapidly in
prosperity that the aggregate addition to
their wealth since 1860 is almost as great
as the wealth of the entire country
in that year, They see that the
South, which is almost exclusively
agricultural, has shared in the general
prosperity, and that having recovered
from the loss and devastation of war has
gained so rapidly that its total wealth is
at least the double of that which it pos
Sc ssed in 1860, exclusive of slaves. In these
extraordinary developments the farmers
see the helpful impulse of a home market
and they see that the financial and reve-
nue. system enacted
SINCE THE REPUBLICAN ART
came into power, has established and con-
stantly expanded the home market. They
see that ever in the case of wheat, which is
your chief cereal export, they have sold in
the average Of the years since the close of
the war three bushels at home to one they
have sold abroad, and that in the increase
of corn, the only other cereal which we
export TO any extent, one hundred bushels
have been used at home to three and a
half exported. In some years the dis
parity has been so great that for every
peck of corn exported one hundred BUSH
els have been consumed in the
home market. The farmers see
that in the increasing competi-
ton from the grain fields of Rus
STA and from the distant plains of India,
the growth of the home market becomes
daily of greater concern 10 them and that
its impairment would dcpreciatc the value
of every acre of tillable land in the Union.
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE
Such facts as these touching the growth
and consumption of cereals at home, give
us some slight conception of the vastness
of the internal of the United
States. They suggest also, that in addi-
ton to the advantages which the Ameri-
can people enjoy from protection against
foreign competition, they enjoy the ad-
vantages of absolute free trade over a
larger area and with a greater population
than any other nation. The internal com
merco of our thirty-eight States and nine
Territories is carried on without let or
hindrance, without tax, detention or gov
ernmental interference of any kind
whatever. 1t spreads freely over an
area of three and a half million
square miles, almost equal in extent to
the whole continent of Europe. Its
profits are enjoyed to-day by ~fifty-six
millions of American freemen, and from
this enjoyment no monopoly is created.
According to Alexander Hamilton, when
he discussed the same subject in 1890, the
internal competition which takes place
does away with every thing like monopoly
and by degrees reduces the prices Of arti-
cles to the minimum of a reasonable
profit on the capital employed. 1t is i'm
possible to point to a single monopoly in
the United States that has been created
or fostered by
THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM
which is upheld by the Republican party,
Compared with our foreign commerce
these domestic exchanges are inconceiv.
ably great in amount, requiring merely Is
one instrumentality as large a mileage Of
railway as exists to-day in all the Other
nations of the world combined. Thesc
internal exchanges are estimated by the
Statistical Bureau Of the Treasury
Department to be annually twenty. time,
as great in amount as orr foreign com
merce. 1t is into this vast field of home
trade, at one the creation and the herit
age of the American people,