St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-05-20
THE FARMER.
The Uncertain Benefit Derived
From Protection.

Inc American farmer OF To-Day
understands this SO surely, and the
fallacy of this argument has so often
been exposed, that it would be a waste
of time to dwell upon it. 1t is barely
possible that at some particular time,
and at some particular point along the
northern border, a duty upon barley
and hay, and potatoes and eggs, and
perhaps a few other articles, may Ell
able the produ GERS of those articles at
that particular time and place to re-
aliZe higher price than he would if
the duty were removed. But, even
this occasional and
UNCERTAIN BENEFIT
is of but very little advantage to him,
and when sou come to remember that
he is at that time subjected to the bur-
den which high tariff imposes upon
the articles he has to buy and undertake
to set off his advantages against his dis
advantages, you will find large bal
ance on the wrong side. Of course the
dom este market, the home market is
improving and will continue to improve
under any system of taxation, along
with the increase Of population, of
wealth, the improved facilities for pro-
duction and distribution in this cOun-
try. But how long are our farmers to
sit down and wait for the coming of
that home market, which the gentlemen
on the other side have been promiS-
ing them for so many years?
Take the average production of wheat
in this country during the last few
years, and assume that there shall be no
increase whatever in the production,
and that the consumption per capita
shall remain always precisely as it is,
and it is capable of demonstration that
there can be no home market for all the
wheat of the American farmer until our
population shall reach nearly 100, 000,-
DOC. The last statistics, showing the
consumption and production and the
expectation of raw cotton in this coun-
try. show that in '66 we sent abroad
about two-thirds of our production, and
we consumed in our manufactures at
home one-third.
THE CAPITAL INVESTED
in 1880 was S2l0, 100000; the number of
hands employed, 172,0OO. Now, if we
have been more than 100 years in SO de-
veloping these cotton industries as to
enable them to take and consume only
three-QuarterS of the American cotton
crop at prices fixed in Europe, how
many centuries will we have to wait
until these factories shall so develop as
to consume all our productions at fair
prices fixed in this country? What is to
become of these products? Are the
farmers of the North and the planters of
the South to abandon their great wheat
and cotton fields and undertake the cul-
tivatiOn of crops not suited to their soil
in order that these gentlemen may eX-
pertinent to see whittier home market
can be made by legislation?
terests must go on, and the Ameri-
can farmer must sell his surplus prod
ucts in any market he can and for any
price he can. The great controlling ele-
ment is the worlds supply and the
worlds demand. The American pro-
ducerS of wheat, for instance, do not
compete among themselves alone in the
great wheat markets of Europe; they
meet there the wheat from England,
from Russia. Austria, Hungary and
India, and all the other grain-growing
regions of Europe and Asia, and sell
their product there in competition with
all the product and the prices so, of labor
Oh the face of the earth. The lately
emancipated slaves of Russia,
THE LABoRER OF INDIA.
who lives all summer on rice and milk,
and requires only coarse cotton shirt
and sleep on the floor of bamboo hut.
all pour their products into the markets
of Europe to meet the wheat from Min
neSota and Dakota, and no tariff we can
put on, and no system OF taxation here
can prevent this. The same argument
applies to all our agricultural products,
and the American farmer understands.
And he understands that as long as he
is compelled to export and sell in a for
eign market any part of his product, the
foreign market is worth as much to him
as the home market, because he receives
there just what he would receive here
after deducting the cost of transporta-
| ton. Therefore, in place of restricting
| the market, he wants it en-
larged so that his products,
which cannot be consumed here,
can find market among the people
| elsewhere. What the American farmer
wants is home market in which he
can purchase his supplies as cheap as
his competitors. When he cannot get
| this, then he asks that there may be
such system as will enable him to
purchase elsewhere and import them,
without being unreaSonably fined for
| carrying on this harmless business.
| This is what the
/ AMERICAN FARMER WANTS.
We want not only the home markets,
but the markets for all the world fol-
| the variety of products of this great
| country. We want to sell our manu-
featured products 20 India and the
hungry manufacturing places of Europe
and the agricultural places of Mexico
| South America and Asia. We want tC
remove, as far as we can, the barriers
| which annoy our industries, so that this
country may take its place with the
1 great commercial countries of the
world, and become rich and powerful
as no other country has before"
]
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