The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-01-28
A FARMER ON THE TARIFF.

Ed. FREE TRADER.-With your permission
| would like to publish few remarks in
your paper, on an article which | read in
the Ottawa Republican, Of date January 18th,
by G. o. Wills, headed L" Free Trade and the
Tariff" The first clause in Mr.. Wills arti-
Gle that will take notice of is, "The bible
himself and his family is worse than an in
fdel." Mr.. Wills must certainly use what
is called the Brooches Bible, for there is no
such verse in King James; but then, it may
be in the Brooches Bible, which was printed
prior to our edition; and it reads IN it that
our first parents took fig leaves and sewed
them together, and made themselves
breeches. Would that infant industry OF
tailoring be clamoring for protection in that
early age of the world? Strange There
could be no pauper labor then, no England,
Another quotation from Mr.. Wills article:
" Now we will see what produced these
good times that our democrats call to mind
so often, that occurred in 1866 and 1856
England and France were waging war with
Russia they could not get their surplus
from Russia and India What fools France
and England were to keep their surplus so
far from home; would have thought it
nothing strange had they gone there for
their supplies but for their surplus, as MIR.
Wills has it, it was most ridiculous. "Hence
they must come to us for it," (the surplus,
supPose.) wheat was IS high as $l.25
per bushel, and other grain in proportion.
II brought us back English gold This did
not last long. In three or four months after
the war closed, wheat was forty cents a
bushel and corn went down, down to l2l
cents per bushel, and oats to 7 cts before i,
stopped. Why such changer" would
say because zoe had no foreign demand, and
Mr. Wills here shows that Our home market
that the protectionists boast so much about
is, in most of years, not to be depended upon
Unless the crops are failure here, the home
market would be low without foreign de-
demand. take Mr. Wills for evidence OF
that point.
Another question II will answer a ques
ton that was asked in one of the papers
some time ago. The question asked was
could any person show that protection add
ed any value per bushel to grain in the
country, and why Liverpool was the govern
ing market instead of Chicago, New York
Cincinnati, or some other city? First, we as
protectionists, say that it has added to the
value of grain, and it remains q fact until il
has been proven to the contrary, which has
never been done Here Mr.. Wills makes
a protectionist assertion, sets it down as a
fact, and then in the following lines proves
that it is not fact. He says: second, ac-
cording to statistics all nations except
England and Italy raise more wheat than
they consume, hence Liverpool governs the
markets Of the world Now, if the United
States is in the world, and England governs
all the markets Of the world it must of ne.
cessity govern the markets of the United
States, and therefore not protective tariff.
will again quote: "a man said to me
yesterday, if free trade stops our factories
let them go to farming" q don't want to
see factories going ito farming) " 1t looks
very much as five wanted greater sur
plus. | am glad that tits not the sentiment