Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-05-10
The Farmers and the Tariff.


er's products, which the protective
tariff has created in the multiplica-
ton of industries which do not com
pete with farming, is of incalculable
benefit to the farmers. In the west
here, before we had this home
market, and when we had no manu-
facturies, it required eleven bushels
of wheat to buy a barrel of salt, and
thirty-eight bushels of wheat TO buy
a pair of good boots. The farmers
great home markets, which the pro-
tective system has created, now buy
and consume nine-tenths of their
surplus products, cotton and tobacco
excepted, at better prices than any
foreign market in this world would
pay, considering their almost infinite
volume. The foreign markets only
want about ene-tenth Of these prod
ucts; and the free traders tell US
that the prices which the foreign
markets pay for this one-tenth fixes
the prices of the nine-tenths which
we consume or sell at home. If
this be true, it would be better for
the farmers to all favor the contin-
uance Of the protective tariff until
it shall have created home market
through our increasing industries,
which will also consume this one
tenth OF their products which now
goes abroad, aud thus relieve us from
that tickle dependency which per-
mits the foreign markets to fix the
prices of all our crops, though they
only buy one-tenth Of them. But
suppose that to the foreign markets,
which only want one-tenth of our
farm products, we should try to
send them two-tenths or twice as
much as they wanted, then the glut
would send their prices down half,
and still these lower prices would
continue to fix the prices of all we
sold at home. This deplorable re-
suit could easily be brought about.
All we will have to do to affect it
will be to adopt the policy Of Cleve-
lands free.trade message as shad-
owed forth in the Mills tariff bill.
That policy will cripple the indus
tries of the country and eventually
drive many of their men into the
farming ranks.
This additional farmers produce
will augment the volume of our
products, while our home markets
will be partially ruined, which will
compel us to force nearly half of
our crops in foreign markets which
only want one-tenth, or, on the other
hand, to let part Of them rot on
our hands. The free traders want
to ignore our great home market,
which protection has largely Gre
ated; but it is nine times more i'm
portant to our farmers than the
foreign markets.
Senator Beck, who is practically a
free trader, often tells the farmers
how they could get rich under free
de. lie says they could sell their
wheat in England, and then buy
their goods there much cheaper, If
our protective tariff was out of the
way. The scheme would work finely
for a few hundred, or even a lew
thousand farmers, but when our
5000, 900 farmers tried it, their
wheat would instantly glut Eng
lands markets so that its prices
would 60 down to nothing, and
then when they tried to buy the
billions in value of goods there,
which our own industries now make
for them, the increased demand for
such goods would swiftly double up
their prices, SO that shortly it would
take eleven bushels of wheat to buy
them a sack of salt and thirty-eight
bushels to pay for a pair of boots.
The same tendency would result in
ruinous degree to the farmers il
Mr.. Cleveland's free-trade message
policy, as incorporated in the Mills
bill, should become a law! As a
Democrat, | voted for Mr.. Cleve-
land in 1884, but, as a farmer,
must condemn his free trade mes
sage as not favorable to the farming
interests. The President, in one
part of his message, declared that
revenue reduction was his purpose,
and be denounced the trusts and
claimed that his policy was friendly
to protection, which were all right.
But in spite of this he singled out
and assailed the farmers interests
| by declaring for free wool, while he
never said word in favor Of free
sugar, although on the latter there
is now in operation a most oppres.
siye trust, though nothing Of the kind
exists as to wool, while sugar Yields
! a tremendous revenue and wool
yields a much less one; and all this,
I in the face of the fact that sugar
/ production under protection is but a
small local interest while wool under
protection is, with the farmers, an
I al IL Oh