The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-07-27

steel rails at SIT a ton, get say $500, 900 tons.
| To this they agree, loading the ships with the
rails
| $50 far the export tax has not been exact
ed, but when the ships reach New York the
custom-house officer is on board, and he tells
the California farmers that they must pay a
| duty on steel rails Of SIT ton, and it takes
| just one-half Of all they have to pay this tax.
| 1t is paid, but the farmers, instead of getting
100000 tons for their sixty million bushels
| of wheat, receive only 1,750, 900.
| ''Ths is the penalty imposed for sending
their wheat abroad and it is just as true to
call it an export as an import tax. Every eX-
port implies an import; the exchange other
wise is not complete, and tax imposed on the
transaction at any stage is an impeachment to
commercial intercourse"
This is an ingenious process of reasoning,
and reflects credit upon the man who devised
it. 1t will be news to most persons that the
farmers Of California are anxious to take steel
rails in exchange for their supplies of wheat, it
not being generally known that they are en-
gagged in building railways. But taking this
argument at long range and not caring to pin
the Louisville paper down to the narrow
bounds it has marked out, let it be understood
that it means that in an indirect way, the
farmers of California somehow take certain
manufactured articles in exchange for their
wheat. Heretofore it has been considered a
| healthful sign to have large balance in cash
coming this way across the Atlantic instead
of an excess of imports. which means trouble
every time It is purely Democratic idea
1 that the farmers of this country must be sal
isfed with taking something in exchange
instead of asking for the cash. The
essence of free-trade argument is that we must
buy where we can buy cheapest, without re-
gard to other considerations. No attention
must be paid to the wants of the manufact-
uring industries Of this country; but if the
articles they manufacture can be bought for a
penny less ton, they must be bought abroad.
If steel rails can be produced in England for
a dollar less the ton, there is the place to buy
them, and argument is at an end so far as
these theorists are concerned The rolling
mill men of this country are not to be consid-
cred. And right here the folly of such pol
icy becomes apparent to any one caring to
dismiss prejudice, and to consider the question
| on its merits.
Suppose it be permitted the railroad build
ing farmers to buy steel rails in England be-
| What then becomes of the steel-rail mills in
this country, and what of the thousands of
men employed in them? Have not the farm
ers enough competitors in the business of
raising wheat, or shall more men be forced
out of the workshops to become farmers and
wheat-raisers? 1t would not be so bad were
it that only the steel-mill men were involved,
but that is not So There are millions Of men
who are at work in the manufactures of
America to-day by reason of the American
system of protection. Break this down, let
the farmer and the wholesale man buy where
he can buy the cheapest" and the imme-
date result is that there will be thousands Of
men out of employment. They are obliged
to do something and thousands of them turn
to farming as the only thing they can do.
| When that shall be, the farmers of the United
| States can sell wheat in any market in the
world, because competition at home will drive
the price to the bottom.
! When viii papers like the Louisville Courier
journal learn that the only reason it does not
pay to export wheat or anything else is that
prices abroad are not so high as they are hereg
1t is a simple question after all. When prices
are higher abroad than they are home it will
pay to export Is the price of wheat in Amer
lea too high in the opinion Of the CD? Free
| trade will make it lower. There is no doubt
of it. If the mills and factories of the United
| States are to be closed at the bidding of those
who want to buy where they can buy cheap
est 5" and their employees are driven to the
fields, it will not be long until the price of
farm products will be low enough to suit the
the most unreasonable of them. The farmers
of California nor of any other State are anxious
to buy steel rails made in other countries
They would like to have as many customers