The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-11
rHE FARMER AND FREE TRADE.

benent the farmers Inc fact Is, there Is no
class who would suffer more from free trade,
for the simple reason that there is none that
have been more benefited by protection. We
make the assertion broadly and without fear
Of successful contradiction that. on the whole.
estimating direct and indirect benefits to-
gether, no class of American citizens, not
even manufacturers, have been more bene-
flied by the protective tariff policy than have
the agricultural class, and that, consequently,
none would suffer more from an abandonment
of that policy. Strictly speaking, the results
of a national economic policy are to be sought
for in the mass and not in individuals, in the
whole and not in details. The real question
is not whether this or that class interest
has prospered more than the rest, but whether
the main body has prospered. Whatever bene-
fits the whole benefits every part. That the
American people, whole, have prospered
amazingly under protection is too plain for
argument Their prosperity is one of the
most stupendous facts of history. In this
general prosperity no class or interest has
shared in larger degree than the agricultural.
To say that many farm products are
not protected is nothing to the point.
To assert, as free-traders do, that the tariff
robs them, is mere assumption. The fact re-
mains, that whatever the defects or omissions
of the tariff may be, it has contributed in
wonderful degree to their prosperity. In build
ing up other industries it has enlarged the
o,,I4 {o 70
extent practically to have revolutionized
the business. Protection has made manu-
featuring and manufacturing has made farm
ing. Without protection we should not have
had manufactures, and without manufactures
the farming interest never would have pros
pered as it has. Agriculture alone cannot
make prosperous wealthy people. His
tory shows that diversified industries are an
index of high civilizations. The fewer indus
tries or employments there are among peo-
ple the lower the average civilization and
development. An exclusively agricultural
people are not as civilized nor as wealthy,
other things being equal, where COM
merce and manufactures are added to agri-
culture Protection has lifted US above the
level Of merely agricultural people. and
made us a great manufacturing and CONNER
cial people as WE'LL From 1860 to 1880 the
acreage of improved farms in ten Western
States increased 160 per cent. What caused
and sustained this immense in
creased The development of manu-
Nctures under protection. During the
same period in the same States the number of
persons employed In manufacturing increased
25l per cent, the wages paid to them in
creased 800 per cent. These hands are fed by
products of the farm, and large part of their
1860 Indiana had 6, 242 1873 acres of improved
land, and in 1880 she had 1888 1888. The
market for the increased products of this in
creased acreage is mainly home market
created by American manufactures. This
protection has added to the money value Of
every acre of land tributary to the manu-
featuring centers. Statistics show that in
States where 20 per cent. of the population
are engaged in farming, the value of the land
per acre is about $40, while in those States
Wuclo ASdIly CO p5I Ccut. VI lL10 populdLlOu
are engaged in farming. the value of land is
only So per acre. So, too, of the value of
farm products. Where the number engaged
in farming is greatest, the value of farm prod
ucts per capita is least. The value Of farm
lands in the different States is in direct pro-
portion to the number Of persons engaged in
manufacturing, and the value of farm prod
ucts in an inverse ratio to the number of
persons engaged in agriculture. The COM
mon assertion of free-traders that the Ameli-
manufacturer is wholly unfounded. On this
point DR.. George B. Loring exCommissioner
of Agriculture, in recent address before the
New England Agricultural Society, said:
when the American farmer goes into the
home market with his products and for the
purchase of his supplies he finds that the
fostering policy Of his government has
cured for him an advantage in each capacity.
As seller he can produce nothing here
which does not find market at home. He
has no foreign market for his perishable prod
ucts, the crops of his garden. none for his
milk none of Importance for his fruit, none
for his wool, and but small one for his sta
pies after supplying the wants of his own
country. He gets more for his wheat in the
markets of the manufacturing States than he
gets in Liverpool. He realizes more for his
cotton in Lowell than he does in Manchester,
England; for bis corn the foreign market is
comparatively unimportant; for his beef and
pork he reaps his profit from the consumers
at home. In America he finds ready market
for 90 per cent. of all he can produce. and he
can spare but 10 per cent. for foreign con-
sumption after feeding his people. When
he enters the market a purchaser the
petition of his own country has reduced the
prices far below what he could hope for were
he delivered over to the tender mercies of the
foreign producer"
Thus the benefits Of protection come to the
farmer unbidden and unsought, fructifying
his lands like the rains of heaven, adding to