New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-05-16
The Tariff, Protecting the
Farmer. and MecIaa1aic.
(Concluded.o

Beneficial as the Tariff no doubt is,
and directly the prime factor to which
this country owes its late prosperity, it,
like all other laws, is not an ideal solu-
ton of a great difficulty. 1t is q COM
promise, enacted to further a good end,
to obtain better results in one diree-
ton, and in that one, which is of main
importance to the majority. History
demonstrates its enactment and por-
trays the result of its influence on the
commercial conditions of all countries.
In our own the tariff has played a very
important part, and q study of the in
dustrial development of the United
States publishes the fact, that without
the rule of protection our manufactor-
les, our farms, would not, nor could
be, in enjoyment of a healthy, unparal-
leled growth.
From Colonial times up, when Eng
land as the mother had to be
relied upon by the young and weak
settlements for supply of manufac-
tured commodities, the colonists ex-
perienced entire dependence, and not
till Pennsylvania irop-ware manufac-
turers developed home industry, did
the colonial farmer recognize the es-
cape from English commercial dicta-
lions.
They perceived from the start that it
was in their interest that home fact
Dry should be supported, and although
foreign pottery and other ware, even in
spite of high transportation charges,
could be brought at a lesser price than
that of home manufacture, they took in
consideration the advantage of o home
market, and right here is the keystone,
which causes relationship between the
mechanic and farmer.
Without a good home-market our
farmer is comparatively helpless, and
will attain that independence, nor
that prosperity incident on
the existence of a commercial centre.
It is therefore to his direct interest to
support it, and in voicing the senti-
ments Of our agricultural districts,
where do we find, that a single farmer
is opposed to the establishment of a
factory
The prosperity of the latter ensures
him ready disposal of his produce,
and at prices wholly in keeping with
taxation on the commodities he buys.
1t is not the exact valuation of his pur-
chases which he must consider but the
relation existing between the articles
bought and the price given him for the
products of his farm.
The relation will ever be profitable
one where circumstances present basis
of equality, and these conditions, now
existing almost without exception in the
eastern states, will ultimately under the
rule of protective tariff be inaugu-
rated in the west and south.
Proof of this is to be seen in the value
of real estate in the New England and
Atlantic states, and a comparison with
that of districts practically insignifi-
cant, as regards the presence of manu-
factories, shows that manufacturing
communities are the richer in every re-
spect. An acre of land in Pennsylvania
is worth $40, while the same tract in
Virginia commands but 81. Massa-
chusetts, that great centre Of factories.
sells an acre of land at $40 and unde-
veloped Mississippi offers the same area
for $3.50.
And is it but the manufacturer alone,
who profits by the protection Of his pro-
ducts? Has not the farmer, being a
neighbor to a great home-market, the
benefit also?
The eastern farmer derives a greater
revenue from the disposal of his raw
materials for manufacture, when the
direct neighber of factory, and the
reason that our western agriculturists
do not get better price for their wheat
and corn at present, is solely due, not.
as the free-trader has it, to the ex-
istence of q protective tariff, but to
the fact that manufactures in the west
are yet in their infancy, are yet SO few
in number. that the vast amount OF the
farmers material can not be used at
home.
The present situation may be illus
trated forc1bly and truly, by imagining
that all the paper-mills for instance
were situated in the State of New York.
The price of the raw material, such as
rags and straw, that would be paid in
the direct vicinity of the mills would ne
high, much higher than 8. hundred or q
thousand miles away, and the paper
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