Wichita eagle., 1888-02-08
A Petition to he Signed by Promis-
cuous Farmers to be Sent
to Congress
Praying for Prevention of Fraudulent In
rortation of Cattle Under the Pre-
tense of Breeding Purposes,
And for Certain Duty on Certain
Products of the Farm for a
Living Protection.

influence of tariff upon agricultural IN
,lustry and the changes in the tariff desired
by farmers. The result was the receipt of
several thousand letters which the
Tribune submitted to committee CON
sisting of Hon. Warner Miller, of New
York. chairman; Chris c. Carpenter, John
II. Rich. w. c. Morse. Edward Burrough,
j. ID. Lyman, w. VI. Grosvenor, Hon. j.
H. Hale. of Connecticut, and Hon. James
Wilson, of Iowa This committee was
charged with the work Of making up the
census of the farmers Of
the country as shown by
these letters Its report, signed by all
except Messrs Hale and Wilson-the for
mer having, however, approved all the
and the latter being beyond reach in Texas
or Mexico-will be published in the Trib-
une tomorrow. 1t is accompanied by the
following petition, which succinctly EN-
bodies the feelings Of the COMMITTEES, and
farmers organizations who favor its prop
ositions are requested to sign and transmit
TO congress or to the Tribune for for.
warding:
PETITION FOR MORE EFFECTUAL PROTECTION
OF AGRICULTURE.
10 the Speaker OF the House Of Representatives:
The undersigned respectfully pray that
agriculture may be more effectually pro-
tected by preventing fraudulent importa-
tions of cattle on pretence that they are
for breeding only: by duty of 9 cents per
bushel on barley with proportionate in
crease of duty on malt; by duties OF p
cents per bushel on potatoes and onions:
81 per 100 on cabbage; So per ton on hay; 10
cents per pound on hops; ~ per cent Oh
beans and peas: cents per dozen on eggs:
30 per cent on fowls and poultry, and on
vegetables in their natural state or in salt
or brine not otherwise provided for, with
no removal or reduction of duties
on market garden product now dutable; by
such increase duties on fax and on linen
goods az will effectually encourage the
preparation of fibre and manufacture of
goods by abolishing all duties, with a
bounty to home producers, by preventing
imports of leaf tobacco, suitable for wrap
pers at the duty imposed on other leaf
tobacco, and repeating all internal taxes
on tobacco. BY restoring to wool growing
the substantial protection enjoyed under
thetariff of 1867. so modified as to meet
the latter forms OF foreign competition
and of evasion.
The report proper is quite long, giving
the statistics Of farm and manufacturing
growth in the United States during the
past fifteen years to show that protection
has brought Immigration and with a
home market for agricultural products
which permitted vast farm development,
etc The following excerpts give the
spirit of what the committee found in the
letters:
The great ma iority of these letters ex-
press the conviction that the tariff, not
withstanding defects and omissions, has
contributed powerfully to the growth and
indifferent. n \ With scarcely
an exception the letters received point out
that the tariff should have directly defend
ed the industry of farmers in ways in
which IL has not. 1t should shield them as
completely as any branch of manufacture
from the spasmodic and destructive com
petition which the cheapness and democrat
lZation of labor in some other lands per-
nit. II But the ba rrier
around the farming industry, at all points
relatively low, has many gaps.
partly from early oversight aud
partly from mistaken revision within
the past few years. Even at this hour.
some important products of American
farms are undelsold in many of our cities
and towns by the products of ill-paid or
unpaid labor. Onions from Spain and
Egypt appear in markets as far west as
Chicago. Tobacco raised by coolies in
Sumatra lessons the reward Of American
growers. Wool clipped by slaves, by con
vcts. or by creatures scarcely less sdegrad
ed, stops wool growing by an army of
American farmers, and sends 6,0O0,00o
sheep to the slaughterer. Potatoes and
cabbage by the cargo from places where
women work daily in the fields, come
hither with ballast, with eggs by the ship
load from Holland, cattle from Mexico
nd n,,1 trny do
The fraudulent importa-
ton of cattle for slaughter,
across northern and southern boundaries
on pretense that they are for breeding pur-
poses only, and by law free of duty. should
toe effectnaiy prevented. 1t is quite
enough that -, 600 head We're last year inn
ported at duty of only 20 per cent which
would he though scanty production for
any other industry. But 1900 head were
brought in from Mexico professedly for
breeding and many more through Canada,
tnough American producers have for years
been unable TO get living prices. The col
lapse OF extensive speculations in cattle
and ranches caused great number of ami
mails to be sacrificed at low prices, although
consumers gained relatively little One of
the chief industries of the country was
rendered almost wholly Improbable. The
greatest danger will come il similar specu-
iations arise in Mexico or Canada. At
may again I've forced upon Our market, in
spite of the low duty, which will then
prove no projection. But the fraudulent
evasion of the law already increases, and
can be indefinitely extended. The
duty on barley should be raised to equal
that on wheat. viz: ~ cents per bushel,
with a proportiouate increase on the duty
on barley matt. Over l0,010.ooo bushels of
barley were imported during the last fiscal
year. and probably over l3,oo0,a0 during
the last calendar year, while in 1856 the
home production WAS 59,ooo,ooo
bushels. The regions in which
il NAV he the most profitahlv
grown have their prices fixed in great mar
kets which Canadian producers can reach
by water, while most of our own producers
cannot The duty on potatoes and market
garden products, which at times can be
brought hither as ballast in slmoSt unlimit-
ed quantities, should be large enough to
insure fair defense TO farmers near the
seaboari and border states.
Here follow statistics of the importation
of potatoes and of the home production on
the middle Atlantic coast. showing that
New York. New Jersey. Connect
cut and Pennsylvania produce
fewei> potatoes than they did
twenty-ei2nt wears ago The report cog-
tinues: More than l.eoe.US tons of AJAX
straw goes To waste or is burned in western
states, worth. If prepared, S26, HJ,O01,
while we pay SIC 1000. 600 To foreign maker.
for linen goods. besides duties amounting
to =; 10000 which the government does
No less than 219 Of the 32G farmers who
refer at all TO the duties on sugar. ask the
abolition of those duties
The producers of tobacco do
not ask any Increase OF duties. but
earnestly desire that the frautiulen, imuosi-
ton of coolie grown tobacco. by which their
industry has been rendered unprotected