The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-02-18

in the industry. Continue the figures
to 1888, aud they show that the cost of
protecting u manufacturing industry
from competition, rs represented by
tle exaggerated profits earned, fOots
up to Sll, 304 ,000, 600. The average
Tariff laid on imported goods during
this period has been about 43 per cent.
The average importation has been
about $500, 900 900, or SlO.SOO, 900 900
worth during the eighteen years last
past. The cost of these goods was
increased to the consumer 43 per cent.
by the tariff, or about So, 230, 900 900.
Add this sun 10 $ll ,304 900 900
which represents the exaggerated
profit of manufacturing in excess of Is
per cent, and the result is $l4,534,O 600
900, which sun closely apprOximates
the price we have paid to protect our
manufacturing industry during the
eighteen years last past. The figures l
have used III these tables are drawn
from the census report OF 1880. | nave
used millions only. have not allowed
for any increase in the value OF our
manufactured products during the eight
years last past. Ii their value has
increased the figures would show a still
more disastrous condition of affairs.
What class has paid this vast sum OF
money! 1t matters not how adroitly
or how indirectly the money has been
drawn from the people, Sl4,5 34 900 900
cannot be paid by any people without
there being some record of or receipt
for the payment in existence. II was
not paid by the manufacturing class.
That class merely manipulates already
created wealth, and sells the manipu-
lated product at II profit. They create
nothing. They pay nothing. 1t The
double statement ia true that in this
country the me only create wealth,
and that they pay all the bills, then
they have paid the manufacturers bill,
and the records should show the fact.
The surplus product of American
agriculture which has been sold to
foreign peoples has fetched about
5000, 900, 900 annually, or a total of
81, 800 600, 900 tor eighteen years. To
preserve absolute impartlality of state
ment, say that two-thirds of that sum
represents the net profit OF agricultural
operations, but as a matter OF fact there
is no such exaggerated profit in sgri.
culture. Deduct the assumed profit of
agriculture, SO, 69S 900 900, from GA
634, 900 900, which sui represents the
excessive profits the manufacturers
have made under the tariff, and there
remains So, 1856 ,000, 900 to be accounted
for. Many intelligent free trade adyO-
Gates assert that the farmers have paid
tins sum, and that it is directly charge
able TO the cost of protecting our
manufacturing industry from compe-
tition. Ii this assertion is true there
should be, ! repeat, some voucher to
show for the payment of the money.
And if our farmers have paid vast sums
in excess of the profits derived from
their industry, they must have borrow
ed the money with which TO pay, and
there must be u record of that financial
transaction.
Come with me to the agricultural
west and to the county court houses,
where the mortgage records are kept.
The number of mortgaged farms in
Michigan has recently been closely
ascertained. Practically one-half of
the farms in that great state, which is
justly famous for the production of
wheat, oats, barley, corn, fruit, vege.
tables, lumber, iron ore and copper, are
mortgaged. In 1880 the assessed value
OF Michigan's farms was $499 ,000, 900.
They increased 40 per cent. in value
daring the decade which ended in 1880.
They have increased in value since that
date, and their number has also been
Increased by bringing new land under
the plow. Their assessed value to-day
should be about 500 goo, 900. Agri-
cultural land in the west is never
assessed for more than one-third of its
actual value. The assessors are usually
taX-paying farmers, and they resolute-
~ refuse to place high values on their
taxable property. Say that Michigan's
farms were valued at e-halt their
actual worth in 1880, and that the same
valuation holds to day, then they are
now worth Sl,400, 000, 900. One-halt
Of them are ~mortgaged, and the older
the community and the more valuable
The land the more numerous are the
mortgages, so the recent investigation
shows, or about 500, 000, 900 worth of
Michigan's farming land is incumbered.
Farm mortgages are always negotiated
on the real value of the land. The
mortgage-negotiating companies do
not hesitate to loan up to one-half the
actual value of the farm offered, and
they frequently loan far in excess of that
valuation. AS a rule, farmers who are
forced to borrow borrow close to the
mortgage bearing capacity of their
land. 1t is safe to assume that the
total amount of money represented by
the faces OF Michigan's farm mortgages
ia at least $3.50, 900 900. AS it Is in
Michigan 80 it is in the 10 great
agricultural states which lie in the
Mississippi Valley.
Apply the same calculations and the
same dispassionate reasoning to which
Michigan has been subjected 10 the
states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa,
Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, and
lie amounts represented by the faces
of the farm mortgages are:-