The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-10-14

very pleasing statement but who has the
wealth There is but little more than half
the percentage of people who own their
homes today that there was prior 10 the op-
Grafton of this tariff system, which has
existed substantially since 1861.
Since that time labor has been more
discontented than at any period prior
thereto. 1t is since that time that we have
had our greatest business depressions, the
largest number of failures, the greatest
losses of property to the poor and the
greatest accumulation by the rich. 1t is
since that time that strikes have become
common. 1t is since that time that our
highways and byways have been filed with
tramps. These facts do not speak well for
the tariff, so far as it influences labor. The
trouble is that the tariff system, designed,
perhaps, to foster and extend our great in
dustries and afford large war tax, has
drifted into system of robbery not contem-
plated by its early advocates, and is today
creating class of monopolists on the one
hand and class of dependent serfs on the
other. Our free institutions can not long
exist in their purity and elevating infu-
ences if labor is degraded and the wage
workers ground down in poverty and
Ignorance.
A prominent writer on political economy,
and who is an able champion of labor's
rights, thus refers to the tariff and its effects
on the wage workers
"It is manifest that the aim of protection is to
lessen competition in the selli Of commodities,
not ip the selling of labor"
''No matter how much protective duty may in
crease the profits of employers, it will have no
effect in raising wages unless iU acts upon COM
petition as to give wOrkmen the power to compel
an increase OF wages"
How does the tariff affect our farmers?
For ten years prior to 1860 there was a
low tariff. From 1850 to 1860, with that
low tariff, the value of our farms increased
on a specie basis from 1921 ,575, ,422 to
So, ,545, ,045, 900, or 100 per cent. From 1870
to 1880, under the high tariff system and
also on specie basis, the value of our
farms increased from $9,262, ,S03,S61 to
$40, ,297 ,096,77 or an increase Of only Al
per cent from 1860 to 1870, and only nine
per cent from 1870 to 1880, UNDER THE TAR
IFF. The total increase in the value of
farms, farm implements and live stock from
1850 to 1860 was from $780,, ,349, $50 to
81, $50, ,493,063, or 101 per cent, while from
1870 to 1880 it was from $l1 lA,95S,7 TAI to
$12, 2,l04, ,0S1 AL, or only SO per cent from
1860 to 1870 and only per cent from 1870
to 1880.
The farmers of the country constitute over
one half of our total population and it is
on this class, as the main producers, that
the burdens of the present tariff system fall
most heavily. A tariff upon farm products
can be of little value to the farmers because
his marketable goods are mostly in our ex-
port instead of our import list. A tariff on
goods we export does us no good whatever,
because the price is regulated by the de-
mand in foreign countries and our ability to
place the products there for sale. Reliable
statistics show that the total increased price
of all farm products in consequence of the
tariff is less than $15,000,0C0, while the cost
of the tariff to farmers alone, in the purchase
of American manufactured goods (aside
from all duties paid to the government, can
not be less than S360,000,000 a year, and
though the last National Republican plat
form promised reform In this monstrous
evil, and though we find the Minnesota Re
publican convention of this year demanding
tariff reform, Mr.. Mckinley, of Ohio, is still
for the same high tariff "protection" that
is robbing the many for the enrichment of
the few. Instead of advocating a reduction
of the farmers taxes, we find Gov. Foraker
urging a revaluation of the taxable property
of the State, which we take it means a scheme
whereby the farms are to be placed at
higher value for the purposes of taxation
while the wealthy monopolists will continue
to practice schemes by which they will
largely evade the payment of their just
share of the public expense.
What about the: prices on farm products
today under the high tariff ? The farmers
know to their sorrow that these prices have
for years been declining, and duty of 100
per cent. would not help the matter, be-
cause the farmers products we expect to
exp : and not import. This conclusion is
not only logically true but is shown by re-
liable statistics, In the report of the Bu-
reau of statistics for March 1884 there is a
New York market report extending from
1926 to 1882 inclusive. This covers the
period between 1S40 and 1861 when we had
a low tariff, as also the period from 1861 to
1882 when we had very high tariff. In
the following table will be found the aver
age gold prices of few of the farmers lead
ing products during those periods