St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-14

business? l am aware of the fact that
we import few agricultural cOmm0dl-
ties, besides wO0l-such as eggs and po-
tatOeS-but it is not because we cannot
readily produce as much, or more, of
these than we can consume. 1t is be-
cause inland freight charges on them
are SO high as to preclude their being
sent any distance. Dakota alone can
produce enough potatoes to supply
every village and town and city in our
country were it not for the fact that it
costs more to ship them by rail 800 miles
across our country than it does to ship
them from Europe to our seaport towns.
We are not unmindful of the fact,
furthermore, that these very protective
laws compelled our railroad builder to
pay an eXOrbitant price for steel rails,
making their railroads cost at least one
third more than they would have cost
If they could have bought in free mar
ket, thus giving the railroads good eX-
cuse, or reason, for charging one-third
higher freight rates than they otherwise
would have charged. We see a sorry
Illustration of the ill effects of building
railroads out of materials fictitiOuSly en-
HANGED by this abOminable protection,
in the fact that the Canadian Pacific
railroad is now carrying freight from
New York, thence back to Kansas City,
at rates so low that our continental
roads cannot begin to compete with
them. And they are enabled to do this
because they bought their railroad ma
terial in an open market. We will not
reap any lasting benefit from this, be-
cause those in the secret know that our
roads have agreed to pay this Canadian
road large bonus not to NEEDLE with
this Western business.
IF PROTECTION IN THIS COUNTRY
has been the means OF reducing so
greatly the prices of all protected goods
wish to ask why the same kinds and
classes of goods are cheaper still in Eng
land, where they are enjoying free
trade? And if protection is sOigreat a
lever to bring down the prices of pro-
tected articles, why it is that the prices
of protected articles are SO much higher
in France and Russia, high protective
countries, than in free trade England?
Are the protectiOnists in so terrible a
strait for something to say to prop up
their golden castles" that they will
risk their cause in the delusive hope
that they can make the farmers believe
that, by compelling them to pay an
average of 40 per cent more for all their
AtiSA ulfO AdA IA anu
clOthing-that this will be the certain
and sure way for them to get wealth,
and bring the prices of these things
down? L am not SO certain, however.
that this would not he the ultimate, and
disastrous result; for have seen this
fall numerous Self-binderS. dragS.
wagons, etc., sold right here in Dakota
at less than One-fifth of what they could
have been bought for year ago. The
sales were always conducted by sheriffS
or their deputies, however. From the
eastern boundary line of the state
OF Illinois, westward to the
coast, farmers, as general thing, are
hard pressed for money. Taxes and in
terest on borrowed money are making
young men old, and old men scarce.
How to get along, clothe the children,
keep them in school, and make both
ends meet" is furrOwing the cheek of
many an ambitious and Woodworking
farmers wife, and sprinkling .ssilver
threads among the gold" yea, before
nature, under fair circumstances, would
step in and show its whitening power.
Any one can ascertain the truth of these
statements by observation and proper
inquiry, if not already familiar with
them. These facts have been staring
the mOnOpOlistic leeches-wh0 thrive by
the aid of the money filched from farm
erS by means of this prOtection-boldly
in the face. They know that the people
know that for more than twenty-five
years they have been working and
sweating and growing old under the
blessings" of congressional laws,
which would, as claimed, tax them ali
into affiuence and riches. With blind
faith, unparalleled in the history of the
world, outside of the religious domain,
the farmers have scrimped and squirmed
and paid their burdensome duties. only
to see themselves grow poorer, while
MANUFACTURERS WE'RE BECOMING
MILLIONAIRES
Everybody is familiar with these
facts. They rise up before protection
lists like BanQuO'S ghost, and will not
down. Something must be done to
counterfeit this feeling of distrust and
dissatisfaction among the farmers as to
the unfair division OF the profits of their
labor.
Into this desperate breech Edward At
kinSOn valOrOuSly steps, and uses his
whole gigantic intellect to show that the
farmers are mistaken in thinking thew
are hard up. He wants to prove that
they are labOring under some sort of a
hallucinatiOn when they think they
have a mortgage Oh their farms. To do
this he went to few money loaning
firms and found out all about it. There
would be just as much sense in going to
the head of river to find out what il
flowed into as to do as he did in this mat.
ter. But the real truth was not what he
wanted, and he adrOitly managed not to
get it. His figures. however, were pub.
lished in Bradstreet's and republished in
all the protection papers in our country
He proves Gin his own way that there
are now only 1000 mortgages on real
estate in our whole Western country.
as far East as the line l have indicated.
He indicates that the number of mort
cages now in process of foreclosure are
two. By searching the county records
of Dakota alone he would easily find
more mortgages on farms than he gives
on our whole Western country. / have
lying before me three different local
papers of Dakota, of late date, and |
find In them thirteen notices of fore
closure by advertisement; and, as only
mOlety OF mortgages are fOreclOSed in
this manner-mOSt Of them being fore
closed by action in cOurt-the value of
his information to the statistical world
is at once apparent.
have referred to the fact
that wool is the only agricultural
product of any note of which we do not
now produce a surplus, and from which
farmers can hope for any benefits from
protection. We may receive some slight
benefits from this duty On wool, but il
we do the statistics furnished by the
agricultural department do not seem to
show it. Politicians in the East, who
engineer the National Wool Growers
association and the Farmers congress
are demanding-in the interests of the
poor down-trodden farmers, of course
that the wool tariff of 1867 be restored
by congress, in order to save the
BUSINESS FROM TOTAL ANNIHILATIoN
AS matter of fact that duty was the
highest in the history of our country
but only trifie higher thar
| the present one. What did that tariff