Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-02-09
WANT PROTECTION.
4 New York Psper Obtains 4 Ceneensus
OF Opinion From Agr,euliurisIs on
the Tariff Question.
They Ave Disposed TO Think Their Industry
ADove All Others In the Country
Needs Protection.

was the receipt OF several tnouSanQ let
tere, which the Tribune submitted to q
committee consisting of Hon. Warner
Miller Of New York, chairman; Cyrus Car
penter, John 1. Rich, A. G. Morse, Edward
Burroughs, j. ID. Lyman, William NJ. Gros-
venor, Hon. J. 81. Hale of Connecticut,
and Hon. James Wilson Of Iowa. This
committee was charged with the work Of
making up consensus Of farmers Of the
country as shown by these letters. Its
report is signed by all except Messrs.
Hale and Wilson, the former having,
however, approved all the finding on
which the document is based, and the
latter being beyond reach in Texas or
Ne xico. It will be published In the
Tribune tomorrow. 1t is accompanied by
the following petition which succiently
embodies the finding of the
committee, and which the farm
ers and farmers organizations
who favor its propositions are requested
to sign snd transmit to Congress or 70
the Tribune, for forwarding q petition for
more effectual protection Of sgricuitufF.
To the Speaker of the House of Representa-
tiVes:
The undersigned respectfully pray that
agriculture may be more efectually pro-
tected by preventing the fraudulent i'm
portation of cattle on pretense that they
are for breeding only; by duty OF 20
cents per bushel on barley with proper
tionate increase of duty on malt; duties
of % cents per bushel on potatoes and
onions; 50 per hundred on cabbages,
IS per ton on hay, 10 cents
per pound on hops, 20 per cent. on beans
and peas, cents per dozen on eggs, go
per cent. on fowls and poultry, and on
vegetables in their natural state, or in
salt or lime, not otherwise provided for,
with no removal or reduction of the
duties on MARKET garden products now
dutiable, and by such Increased duties on
fax and on linen goods as will effectually
encourage the preparation OF fibre and
the manufacture of goods; by abolishing
sll duties on sugar with bounty to
home producers; by preventing imports
of leaf tobacco suitable for wrappers at
lSs duty imposed on other leaf tobacco,
aid repeating all internal taxes on
tcbzceo; byrestoring to wool-growing
the SUBSTANTIAL protection enjoyed under
the tariff of 1867, so modified as to meet
the later forms of foreign competition and
of evasion.
The report proper is quite long, giving
statistics of farm and manufacturing
growth in the United States during the
past fifteen years to show that protection
has brought immigration, and with 1t q
home market for agricultural products
which permitted vast farm developments,
etc. The following extracts give the
spirit of what the committee found
in the letters. The great ms
iority of the letters express the
conviction that the tariff, DotWithstend-
ing it's defects and omissions has con-
tributed powerfully to the growth and
welfare of the agricultural interests,
while q few are hostile or Indifferent.
With scarcely an exception the letters re-
ceived point out that the tariff should
directly protect the industry Of the
farmers in the United States, which it
has not. 1t should shield them as COM
pletely as any branch of manufacture
| from spasmodic and destructive COMPETE
ton which chespens and degrades labor
| in other lands. But the barrier around
the farming industry is at all
points relatively low, has many
gaps, partly from early oversight and
partly from mistaken revision within the
past few years. Even at this hour the
same important products of American
farms are undersold in many of our cities
and towns by the products Of i'll paid or
unpaid labor. Onions from Spain
snd Egypt appear On the markets
as far esst as Chicago.
Tobacco raisedseby coolies IN Sumatra
lessons the profits OF American growers
Wool clipped by slaves, by convicts, or
by creatures scarcely less degraded, stops
wool growing by an army Of American
fsfms nd sends 100000 sheep to the
slaughterer. Potatoes ana cabbage
by the cargo from places where
women work daily in the fields
come hither as ballast with eggs by the
shipload from Holland; cattle from Mexi-
CO and barley from Canada. The frsudu-
lent Importation of cattle for slaughter
across the northern and southern boun-
dsries on the pretense that they are fer
breeding purposes only and by lay free of
duty, should be effectually prevented.
It is quite enough that $4,000 were last
year imported st duty of only 20 per
cent, which would be thought scanty
protection for any other industry, but
IL, 600 were brought in from Mexico pro-
fessedly for breeding and many more
from Canada, though American pre-
ducers have for years been unable
to get living prices. The collapse of ex-
tensive speculations in cattle and ranches
caused great number Of animals to be
sacrificed at low prices, though the con-
sumers gained relatively little. One of
the chief industries of the country
was rendered almost wholly Improbable.
The greatest danger will come II
similar speculations arise in Mexico or
Canada. At their collapse immense
numbers of cattle may sgsin be forced
upon our market in spite of the low dotY
which will then prove no protection. But
the fraudulent evasion Of the law already
increases and can be indefinitely ex-
tended. The duty on barley
should be reduced to equal those
On wheat, viz: 20 cents per bushel,
with proportionate increase of the duty
on barley malt. Over $1,000, 0eC bushels
Of barley were imported during the last
fiscal year End probably over 100000
during the last calendar year; while In
1886 the home production was $4,000
bushels. The regions in which it may be
most proftably grown have their prices
fixed in the great markets which
the Canadian producers can reach by
waferiwhile the most of our own producers
o&6not The dutv IN roEatoes and m srkot