The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-27
FARMERS AND THE TARIFF.

great prominence during the impending cam
paign. In anticipation of good yield this
year the price is dropping to figures uncom-
fortably low, quotations having been made at
points lower than at any tiqe during the past
quarter of century. It may appear, then,
that bountiful harvest is not necessarily an
unmixed blessing, for while cereals will be
| plentiful the demand is so light that the mar
ket is glutted and prices tumble. The aspect
of the worlds markets is not what it was in
1860, nor even what it was a decade
past. Could the farmer who died just after
the late war come back to his town and be
| told that the wheat growers of America have
dangerous rival for the European trade, he
would not be able to guess from what quarter
the new supply came OF the wheat fields of
northern India he would probably never dream,
and if he did, the idea would seem so prepos-
ferrous as to be Immediately dismissed But
the man who sowed wheat last fall knows that
the ryots of the Punjab are his rivals in the
of crops in continental Europe has not the
same significance to America it once had, and is
no sure precursor of high prices for the Amer
lean product. The immense area of southern
Russia, of Austria, and of northern India will
easily supply deficiencies without drawing a
bushel from west Of the Atlantic. To hold
| prestige in the markets of the old world we
must underbid the simple wheat raisers of the
regions named. In view of the fact that the
outlook in those parts of the world is good,
that we have still surplus from last year,
and the crop prospects are excellent, there is
little wonder that prices have gone down so
low.
But cheap politicians and demagogues will
not fail to take advantage of the occasion, and
the campaign will ring with speeches on the
made that the tariff has done moth
| ing for the American farmer; that,
while it protects everybody else, it does
nothing for him. Up and down the land the
changes will be rung in the hope that preju-
dice may get the best of reason. The price of
wheat is very low, and may go lower, but it
were folly, therefore, to cut adrift more men
to 90 into the business of raising wheat and to
cease being buying consumers. 1t is evident
already that we are to have too much wheat,
and not enough consumers this year. Through
no fault of ours the foreign demand has been
most seriously curtailed, and the prospect is
that it will be still more seriously abridged.
! 1t is curious argument that we should re-
move or decrease tariff duties in order that we
may buy still more largely of articles manu-
featured abroad. Every dollar spent for
foreign manufactures is just that much
taken from American enterprise of the same
class, and to that degree American manufac
turers are hurt and American operatives sent
from shop to field, where they must inevitably
become therivals of the too many already there.
Manifestly we must exert ourselves to sustain
industrial enterprises and thus keep every
man possible proftably employed. If the
farmers of America can feed and clothe four
us have that many engaged in the manufac-
ture of those thousand and one things needful
to farmers and all others alike. Let us give
employment to the men who eat Ameri-
can bread and help pay American taxes.
| But there is another aspect of the tariff
question as relating particularly to farmers.
The man who argues that the American farm
er is not protected directly as well as indi-
rectly either does not know of what he speaks
or willfully makes amisstatement. During the
! last past year internal revenue to the amount
of 500, 000 900 was collected on field products
such as could be and are raised here. But the
time is near at hand when this question will
reap. If wheat can be raised in India and
sold at profit at twenty cents bushel, and
if this same wheat transported to England can
kill the demand for the American article, how
long will it be until the same wheat
will be offered for sale in Boston,
New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore at
prices lower than American farmers can af-
ford to raise It'll But for the tariff, Indian
wheat would be for sale in New York city at
figures cheaper than our farmers could afford.
Those who laid the tariff builded more wisely
than they knew 1t affords needed protection
to one and all. In encouraging manufactures
it furnishes consumers for American field
products, and in laying duty on cereals it
now stands between the American farmer
and his advanced manner of living and the
halfclad, sinply-fed field hands of India.