Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-02-16
PROTECTION OF AGRICULTURE.
The Tribute of the Agricultural Interests TO
the Benefits of Protective System.
Extracts from Thousands of Letters from Far
mers on the Great Subject
Their Petition for More EHectual Protection
of Agriculture.


the Tribune of this city invited an ex-
preston of opinion by individual farm
ers, agricultural societies and grangerS
regarding the influence of the tariff
upon agricultural industry and the
changes in the tariff desired by farmers.
The result was the receipt of several
thousand letters, which the Tribune
submitted to a committee consisting
of Hon. Warner Miller, of New York,
Chairman; Cyrus c. Carpenter, John
IT. Rich, W. c.. Morse, Edward Bur
rough, J. d. Lyman, W. NJ. GrOS-
venor, Hon. J. H. Hale, of Connecticut,
and Hon. James Wilson, of Iowa. This
committee was charged with the work
of making up the consensus of the farm
ers of the country as shown by these let
ters. Its report, signed by all except
Messrs. Hale and WiISon-the former
having, however, approved all the find
ings on which the document is based,
and the latter being beyond reach in
Texas or Mexico-will be published in
the Tribune tomorrow. 1t is accom-
panied by the following petition which
succinctly embodies the findings of the
committee, and which farmers organi-
cations who favor its propositions are
requested to sign and transmit to Con-
gress, or to the Tribune for forwarding:
PETITION FOR MORE EFFECTUAL PRO-
LECTION OF AGRICULTURE.
To the Speaker of the House of Representatives:
The undersigned respectfully pray
that agriculture may be more effectually
protected by preventing fraudulent i'm
portations of cattle on pretense that
they are for breeding only; by duty of
20 cents per bushel for barley, with pro-
pOrtionate increase of duty on malt; by !
duties of 25 cents per bushel on potatoes
and onions, 81 per 100 on cabbages; So
per ton on hay, 10 cents per pound on |
hops, 20 per cent. on 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 remov-
al or reduction of duties on market gar
den products now dutiable; by such in
creased duties on flax and on linen |
goods as will effectually encourage the
preparation of fiber and manufacture of
goods; by abolishing all duties on sugar,
with bounty to home producers; by
preventing imports of leaf tobacco suit
able wrappers at the duty imposed on
other leaf tobacco and repeating all inter
nal taxes Oh tobacco. Byrestoring to wool
growing the substantial protection en-
jJ0yed under the tariff of 1867, so modi-
fed as to meet the later forms of for
eign competition and evasion.
The report proper is quite long, Civ
ing the statistics of farm and manufac-
turing growth in the United States du
ring the past fifteen years to show that
protection has brought immigration and
with it home market for agricultural
products which permitted vast farm de-
velopment, etc.
The following excerpts give the spirit
of what the committee found in the let
tiers:
'The great majority of these letters
express the conviction that the tariff,
Notwithstanding defects and omissions,
has contributed powerfully to the growth
and welfare of agriculture. Few are
hostile or Indifferent.
"With scarcely an exception the let
ters received point out that the tariff
should have directly defended the indus
try of farmers in ways in which it has
not 1t should shield them as COM
pletely as any branch of manufacture,
from the spasmodic and destructive
competition which the cheapness and
degradation of labor in some other lands
permit.
"But the barrier around farming in
dustry, at all points relatively low, has
many gaps, partly from early oversight
and partly from mistaken revision with
in the past few years. Even at this hour
some important products of American
farms are undersold in many of our
cities and towns by the products of
i'll paid or unpaid labor. Onions and !
potatoes from Spain and Egypt appear
in markets as far West as Chicago. To- !
bacco raised by coolies in Sumatra less .
ems the reward of American growers. .
Wool clipped by slaves, by convicts, or :
by creatures scarcely less degraded, stops :
wool l-growing by an army of American
farmers, and sends 100000 sheep to ,
slaughter. Potatoes and cabbageS by =
the cargo, from places where women q
work daily in the fields, come hither as
ballast, with eggs by the ship load from y
Holland cattle from Mexico and Canada. =
"The fraudulent importation of cattle u
for slaughter, across northern and south =
ern boundaries, on pretence that they =
ire for breeding purposes only, and by
aw free of duty, should be effectually
prevented 1t is quite enough that 49, ~
700 head were last year imported at =.
luty of only 20 per cent, which would y
De thought scanty protection for any |
,ther industry. But $4,000 head were ii
brought in from Mexico professedly for n
breeding, and many more from Canada, .,
hOugh American producers have for g
ears been unable to get living prices.
The collapse of extensive SpeculationS B
n cattle and ranches caused great
lumber of animals to be sacrificed at II
ow prices, and though consumers gained el
little, one of the chief indus o.
rieS of the country was rendered al b
most wholly improbable. The greatest W
langer will come if similar specu- zC
ations arise in Mexico or Canada; at h
heir collapse immense numbers of cat tC
lie may again be forced upon our mar st
,et, in spite of the low duty which will IL
hen prove no protection. But the g
fraudulent evasion of the law already in O
reases and can be indefinitely extended. a,
"The duty on barley should be raised
o equal that on wheat, viz: 20 cents
,er bushel, with prOportiOnate increase u
n the duty on barley malt. Over TO-, v
100000 bushels of barley were imported Il
Turing the last fiscal year, and probably q
,ver 100000 during the last calendar -,
'ear, while in 1886 the home production "
vas 59,000,000 bushels. The regions lc
n which it may be most protitably grown
lave their prices fixed in great markets
which Canadian producers can reach by Ii
water, while most of our own producers "