The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-27
Protection and Aaricuiture.

Protection and Agriculture.
In his address in Chicago on Fen. -, Mr.
Cnauucey NJ Depew, who Is much talked
of in connection with the Republican nomi-
nation for President, said "The factory
doubles the value of the adjoining farms
for the farmers whose tariff cxactions are
too small TO be calculated This is the
argument which the protectIonists have
always used when addressing farmers, and
it is the one they are using now. It's based
upon the assumption that without a high
protective tariff there would be- no factories,
and that the great majority Of farmers are
directly benefited by factories The
assumption is not justified by
the facts. If it were true
that there would be no factoriei without Il
prohibitory tariff there would be no obiec-
ton worth noticing to such a tariff. But
the fact is that a low tariff would benefit
manufactures, because it would enable
them to manufacture their goods at 50 much
less cost that they would be able TO com
pete with foreign manufacturers in foreign
markets. More markets would require
more factories, and if factories benefit
est of farmers, because it would encourage
the building of factories.
But it is not true that protected factories
benefit farmers generally. The farmers who
are close TO factory towns may get little
better price for their butter, eggs and vege-
tables than those who are at a distance from
any market, but they get no more for their
grain and stock. A very small percentage
of farmers, however, live near factory
towns, and they enjoy no advantages over
farmers who live in the vicinity of purely
commercial towns. One kind of a town is
as good as another so far as the farmers are
concerned.
Everyone who has given the least atten-
ton to the matter knows that the prices of
the chief agricultural products are fixed in
Europe where the surplus of them goes
The prices for wheat corn, bacon and beef are
fixed in Liverpool, and the prices which
the farmers have to pay for their supplies
are fixed in this country. The manufac-
turers of agricultural implements, of all
kinds Of wooden goods and of dozens of other
things which are needed by farmers, are
able, because of the tariff, to charge not
only reasonable profit on the cost Of the
goods but also a larger additional profit
The result is that while the country is be-
coming noted for its milIionaires who have
secured their wealth from manufacturing
monopolies of one kind and another the far
mers are steadily growing poorer.
New York is the greatest manufacturing
State in the Union. If factories double the
price of farms and make farmers
rich, the farmers of that State
ought to be prosperous. But are they9
In an article in the March Forum Exon
gresham Morrison says: GAS to the agri-
cultural interest in New York, the second
State in the value of agricultural products,
we are informed on the authority of the
State agent of the Bureau of Statistics, that
New York farmers are more in debt than
they were ten years ago; that the average
depreciation of farming lands is fully one
third in ten years; that probably
one-third of the farms in the State
would not sell for more than the
cost of the buildings and other improve
ments; that 30 per cent. of the farms are
mortgaged for two-thirds of their estimated
value This State is first in the magnitude
of its manufactures and in the advantage,
at home and abroad, for agricultural pro-
ducts. 1t is not unfair to say that agricul-
ture is as prosperous in New York as tho
average for all the States. If nearly thirty
years of protection leaves the farming in
terest in the condition which this report
shows it to be, protection does not benefit
agriculture"
If Mr.. Depew had studied the tariff ques-
ton as carefully and conscientiously as Mr.
Morrison has he would hardly have made
the statement he did at Chicago