The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-16
Senator Brown and the Farmers.


speech, delivered in the Senate on Wednes-
day, synopsis of which was printed in
our dispatches yesterday, is a shrewd effort
to convince the farmers that it is 10 their
interest to have free whisky and the pres
ent high protective tariff maintained.
In that speech they are told that the
value of home manufactures last
year was twenty-seven times as great
as that of imported manufactures,
and that, therefore, they paid tariff duties
on only one twenty-seventh part of the man
ufactured goods they used. Every intelligent
farmer knows that this statement is mis-
leading. The protective tariff enabled the
manufacturers of this country to get
much higher price for their goods than they
could have gotten had the tariff been lower.
Owing to the protective tariff, therefore,
the farmers really paid tariff duties on all
the manufactured articles the" used, but
only one twentv-seventh of what they paid
went into the Federal Treasury. Twenty
six twenty-sovenths went into the pockets
of the manufacturing monopOles.
In order to show what great benefit the
high protective tariff has bean to the
country Senator Brown points out that steel
rails are now offered in this country at ST.
per ton, and that English manufacturers
cannot furnish them, duty paid, for less
than $50 per ton. The duty on steel rails is
sl7 per ton. 1t is true that American mills
are now offering steel rails at a very low
price, but if they can sell them at legiti-
mate profit, and there is no
doubt they can. at S3l per ton,
viii Senator Brown explain why
it Is that they insist upon tariff of $l7 per
ton! He doesn't touch that point in his
speech, and, perhaps, he would find the
question a rather puzzling one from his
standpoint. The question, however, is ali
easy one. The high tariff enables the steel
rail manufacturers to combine and advance
the price OF steel rails to point that just
avoids competition with the English manu-
facturers, and this they frequently do.
What rs true with regard to steel rail manu-
facturers is true with regard to the manu-
facturers of other protected articles
Senator Brown may say that the farmers
are not interested in the price of steel rails.
Why are they not! The more a railroad
costs the higher are the rates for transport
ing the products of the farm to market.
Composition among manufacturers reduces
the prices of their goods, but they are de-
feating competition by the formation of
trusts, and the high protective tariff makes
trusts possible.
Senator Brown attempts to create in the
minds of the farmers the impression that
they get benefit from the tariff of 10c. a
bushel on their corn just as the manufac-
turers of steel rails, for instance, do from
the tariff of So ton on the product of
their mills. But do they? What benefit is
the tariff on corn to them. The price of
corn is fixed in Liverpool, where the sur
plus of their corn crop is marketed, and it
wouldn't be affected in the least if the
tariff were removed 1t would be difficult
for Senator Brown or anybody else
to show why tariff duty was placed on
corn. Perhaps the manufacturers are re-
sponsible for it, thinking thereby to make
the farmers less FESTIVE under the burdens
imposed by the tariff for the benefit of their
monopolies.
Senator Brown should study the figures
furnished by the census if he wants to find
out just what effect the high protective
tariff has upon the farmers. They were
presented in an article published in the
Courier Journal some weeks ago and are
as follows:
The increase in the value Of
farms from 1850 TO 1860, period of tariff
reform. wasa00 per cent. Between 1860
and 1870, high tariff it was only Al per
cent, and from $50 10 1880, only Q per
cent. Under a revenue tariff the value OF
arms increased s.. 273, Ago 5Sl in ten years
Under tariff for protec ion the value If
farms increased in twenty wears only IS, $50, :
05l ,769 From 1850 TO 1860
the value of farm machinery and imple-
nents increased G2 per cent from 1860 to
1870, high tariff. it increased only 80, and
from 1870 to 1880 only 20 per cent. Live
stock, in the decade of a revenue tariff, in
creased 100 per ceht during the next ten
years it increased only 40 per cent, and
| from 1870 to 1850 it actually decreased.
These figures don't show that high pro-
tective tariff is a good thing for the farm.
ers. Senator Brown will have hard time
convincing the farmers that in trying tn
perpetuate the present robber tariff he is
influenced by desire to promote their in
| tere t..