The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-05-17
How the Tariff robs the Farmer.
BY James Fleming.


By James Fleming.
There can be no controversy upon the state
ment that Of all the great interests of the
country, agriculture is the most important.
If crops are plentiful, and the prices of pro-
ducts are good, the condition of all other in
terests is at once favorably affected. The
prompt and ~effectual relief afforded by the
agriculturists Of the country to the Frustrated
manufacturers and tradesmen in 1880 and
1881 furnishes the most recent case in proof.
1t was not protection but the farmers, that
set the idle furnaces, the hammers and the
spindles of the protective indurtries again in
motion, and relieved the misery of more
than q million of tramping laborers and
mechanics" What has protection done for
the pioneer? The pioneer has encountered
no ordinary difficulties in retaining the
wilderness. Hostile savages to encounter,
his wife and little ones butchered before his
eyes and when these have been overcome,
hail or prairie fire may leave him destitute.
Through his energy and perseverance, rail-
carry to market, the produce of what but a
few years ago was a "great lone land How
does he get protected? His home market is
injured, and iron which is indispensable to
the farmer, in those days of improved ma
chinery, is increased in price by a tariff,
which only benefits a few monopolists. l
will not weary my reader with a long table,
but Gull o few specimens for farmers to
think over Pots and kettles So per cent,
horse shoe nails So per cent. The iron the
stove is made of 45 per cent, files 40 per
cent, a hand saw 40 per cent, etc. Does the
duty on iron, the raw material, enable the
manufacturer in iron to make cheaper goods?
Let them speak for themselves. Testimony
of Mr.. D. Buford, of Rock Island, one of our
largest and most successful pillow makers,
before the Tariff commission of the United
States.
"Thero is not one article we make, that is
in the least benefited by the tariff. On the
contrary almost everything we buy is en-
HANGED in price by the tariff, and of course
our customers in turn, have to pay more for
what they buy of us, caused by the duties
on iron and steel"
MIR. Lucius Wells, formerly manager 70,
John Deere s. Co., Moline ILL.,, says:
1.-The cost of every implement We make is
increased Is to 20 per cent, by the present
tariff with no compensating benefit"
The manufacturers ship large quantities
of these products abroad where they have t.
compete with foreign makers hampered by
the duties on iron and steel. The manufact
urers of cutlery tell the same story, anG
what a large foreign trade they could do only
for the high price of the raw material. A
larger trade would require more men: more
men, more consumers in the home marke
for the farmers produce. This much for thu
:home market fallacy. The farmer has t.
sell his surplus produce in a foreign market
with the cost of production increased by
system of robbery under legal forms. Th'
duty on pig iron is $7$ per ton. Our iro1
ore can he manufactured cheaply. In tn
third Vol. of Geoi survey of Ohio, page II
"There is no place in United States, ant
probably in no other country where iron col
be manufactured more cheaply than here
and again page 66l. Gin facilities for max
ing iron, the owners of these lands are sub
stantially Independent of tariff and panics
There is really no danger that the price 0
iron will become so low that it cannot b
manufactured at a profit AS iron can b
produced in the United States for from ST.
to $13 per ton, nearly as cheap as in Eng
land. The freight from Europe is about 5
per ton, which ought to be ample protection
Last fall pig iron was selling at from $2l t
So per ton, being on increase in price of 5
per ton within a year: of this increase tn
men who did the work did not receive on
cent. This leaves an additional profit
from 50 to $l2 per ton. As many millio
tons are produced annually in the Unite
States. How much in one year has bee
wrung from a long suffering people. Ho,
long will farmers tamelv submit to be robbie
for greedy cormorants, who care for nothin
but riches, whose motto is make money n
matter by what means, Our shipping ruined
our "protected" laborers scarcely able t
r live, and our agricultural interests impove'
ished by ''protection."
Death of Trusts.
S1& Tho Iouyo 1or;S1of ,,ro hoo toLop TIM hill