Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-07-29

-. " Wy ~ III DaE drCCu
enough to attend the common schools
makes up no small item. / calculate tina
the five cost me, in money expended q
the stores in Middleburg, some two hun
dred dollars. OF this q hundred and
seventy-iye 20 on the backs of my poo
children, and twenty-five into the pockets
OF the protectionists.
All the purchases made by rs farmer
are at the village where q years credit l
given. When our crops come IN we de
liver our grain at the railroad depot, snC
getting checks for same, 20 round and set
tle-that is, 50 far as the from on
products enables Us TO do 50. Every yea
the sum that remains unpaid grows larg
err. We have then 10 hustle round, sci
wool, sell hogs, sell anything to make uI
this differences. The worst Of all are tn,
the township, county, and State taxes
These have to DO paid, aud t~wo-thirds, yes
three-fourths Of the mortgages on farms
originate in these.
Now, if / could have the two hundred
and odd dollars extorted from my pool
little farm Of one hundred and sixty acres
I could about make both ends meet. And
what an internal outrage it is that /, and
other farmers like myself, should have
this extortion fastened or rs, for which
we get absolutely nothing in return!
We are told Of q home market. We
have heard of that home market for TWEEN.
ty-dye years, but have never seen it.
Smsu wonder! for of all the people taken,
thry tell rs, from agricultural pursuits,
there is not one who eats more or less than
he did before. And IS for l~essening the
number of producers, the emigration from
Europe puts in three men for every man
taken out. 1t is an odd sort of protection
that protects labor against the pauper in
Europe, but not from the thousands on
thousands pouring in upon our shores
every year.
The home market don't work. 1t costs
me, rs il does q other farmer in this To-
cality, one dollar to plant, grow, cut,
thrash, and get into the granny M bushel
Of wheat. The home market, az the
thing is called, gave me last harvest sixty
cents a bushsl. This coming harvest | ex'
psct fifty cents-for this is the rate of de-
cline; and all my other products sutfer the
same loss. This sort Of thing never &C
/ CuEECu Will tuC loiClku ulhAh q
This, however, is all fudge. There is nc
more home market to-day than there wa
fifty years ago; and there can't be. After
the people at home have consumed ouI
products TO their utmost capacity, there
remains q heavy surplus that has to find
its market abroad or rot on our hands
This market abroad fixes the prices at
home, so that no law OF Congress can lessen
or add one cent. When they talk about
taking laborers from farming and putting
them at other pursuits, they don't help
sumers before. As for l~essening the num-
Der of producers, as have said, these peo-
pie can get psuper labor from Europe for
less than they would have to pay native
farmers; and get them they do. These
miners and manufacturers, after squeez-
ing all they can out of Us by law, proceed
to squeeze labor; sndthey do that by draw
ing on the labor Of Europe. / sm but a
short distance, as the crow flies, from the
Hooking valley coal mines. l saw the
native Americans driven out by Welsh
and Irish. These in turn were crowded
out by Poles, Bohemians and Italians.
These in turn, as they object to being
starved to death, are threatened by negroes;
and we should have Chinese did not the
law forbid. SO far as / can find out,
the poorest paid labor in the United
States is protected labor. Mining work
never Wa skilled labor, and, owing to the
improvements in machinery, manufactur'
ing has ceased to be of that sort Even a
girl or child can stand by and regulate the
machine.
/ said the protected labor was the poor
est paid. must qualify that. There is
very little difference between that and
farm labor. At the rate we have been
tue ne2s Luonty-nye We snail see Iarnl
labor little better than the old serfdom Of
Russia. We are coming to the eighteen
dollars o year and the sheepskin coat.
And as the right honorable officials pr0tec-
tionists address Us now, in our distress,
as their dearly beloved farmers, / suppose
when in our misery, dying, as their min
ers snd mill operatives die, OF want, they
will still give us this tsffy. And why?
Because we vote. They treat their own
laborers rough because they know there
are 40 few OF them it can make Nc differ
enee. But if we farmers were to get up IN
our wrath, we would make short work OF
them at the polls. l don't know
whether this will ever occur, for we are
ignorant and stupid, preferring the right
honorable protectionists' tafly to common
sense.
Let our sgriculturist once comprehend
the true working Of this protective system
and its reign will be short. Let us look
at it. i have a few hogs, a bunch ofsheep,
some corn, and more wheat. How | have
plowed, planted, fattened, and cured for
these, tells o story of hard labor and ex-
posure scarcely known to any other pur'
suit. Now, why have I toiled through the
year? Certainly from no philsuthropic or
protective native. I have done so simply
10 secure q market; no more, nc less.
Does this paternal government sympa-
thize with me?. Not much. CONGRESS il
in session the greater part Of the year
Does Congress do anything for the farmers!
Again, not much! Sometimes q member
makes q speech in which he ~bespatters us
with 1attery. Aud every year the Presi.
dent sends in q message in which hespeaks
Of farming being the great underlying
| prosperity OF tue lduu. DO any VI encn
concern themselves about our markets.
Again l say, not much! And yet the
most influential committees of the House,
that of the Ways and Means sits in al
most perpetual session to hear, consider
and devise how the mining and msnufac'
turing interests are to secure q proft there
for through law Of Congress, instead Of
leaving these interests to the trade law OF
supply and demand. II q delegation oi
farmers were to 90 before that committee
and say. 1--WE are losing, not money, but
our labor, aud we cannot live on the prices
Of this market of your making" the dele
CATION would be told that the great Ameri'
can system OF protection was devoted to
fostering minining and manufacturing In
dustries, and when that was done the
farmers would reap q consequential good
which the committee hoped they would bt
patriotic enough to accept. And when the
door closed on the disguised delegation 8
roar Of laughter would 90 up over the
hay seeders."
Now, let us see how the internal system
works a. TO the farmer. His market is q