Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-26
FREE TRADE FALLACY.
The Fiction of Free Trade Argument That
the Tariff Does Not Protect the
Farmer.
How Free Trade Has Caused Many Vices
and Disasters in England.

The free traders have been forced by
the irrefutable logic of figures to aban-
don the falsehood that quinlne has been
cheapened by the abolition of tariff duty
upon it; they can not again assert that
the price Of coal is influenced, at any
rate in the middle and southwestern
States-meaning all between the Blue
Ridge and the Rocky Mountains-by tho
protective tariff; they can not much
longer keep afoat the fiction that the
price of lumber on the Western plains is
greatly advanced by the duty on Canadi-
an boards and plank; they have learned
to their own sorrow, and to everybody
else's JOY, that man with what is re-
garded as a small income in America,
say $12 to $15 per week, can live more
cheaply in Chicago or New York than
IN London or Liverpool; they are bank
rupt of statistics in proof Of their special
pleadings, and they have well nigh ex-
hausted themselves of the glittering
generalities of platitude. To what refuge
will they next betake themselves? says
the Chicago Inter-Ocean.
They Iinger fondly in a belief that the
American farmers can be converted to
their way Of thinking by repeated assur-
ances that protection protects the manu-
facturers and the dweller in cities and
does not protect him who raises the food
which they consume. A few statistics
will be sufficient to rout them from this
position. Let US take five counties in
Kansas and see what protection does for
the farmers resident in them. In 1879
the wheat crop raised in the counties
mentioned and the amount of protection
afforded to it may be stated as follows:
Atchison, 302O78 bushels; protective
duty on them, S72, 1880.
Butler, 378,258 bushels; protective duty
on them, S73 65l.60
Doniphan, 518 40 bushels; protective
duty on them Sl03, 628.OO.
Conley, 624. 535 bushels; protective duty
on them, Sl24, 10000.
Sedgwick, 574,741 bushels; protective
duty on them, STA 95S. 20.
The wheat crop has increased largely
since 1879, and of course the measure of
protection has increased with it. And to
this protection on each bushel of wheat
is to be added that on each bushel of
oats, barley, buckwheat, and potatoes,
on each pound of butter. cheese, lard,
meat, honey, hops, and hemp raised.
And all Of these could be imported from
Manitoba, Canada and Nova Scotia to
the detriment Of the American farmer,
but for the protection afforded him by
the tariff.
What is the amount of protection af-
forded to the farmers in five counties of
Illinois on one Of their crops, that of
oats? The output in 1879 was:
LaSalle County, 2,11O, 752 bushels; pro-
tectiVe duty on crop, S2l1 075.20.
Mclean County, 2,110790 bushels? pro-
tectiVe duty on crop, S211 ,07900.
Ogle County, 2297, $50 bushels; protect
i've duty on crop, 1929, 1850.
VIII County, 2,701, go bushels; protect
i've duty on crop, $270, 1900.
Cook County, 1928 052 bushels; protect
i've duty on crop, 1922, 305.20.
Or more than 100000 of protective
duty on one crop grown by the farmers
of five counties in State which borders
on the great waterway between Canada
and the United States; a crop with
which, but for protection, our Canadian
leighbors could fully supply the Chicago
md New York markets. The free
traders must abandon their claim for
sympathy from the farmers on the plea
of non-protected agriculture. And hav-
ing abandoned this, what next?
In this connection a few extracts will
not be amiss from a book entitled 'ESe-
crets of Finance" by Mr.. Henry ebay
nor an Englishman who complains that
this is IAN age of cheapness. The de-
mand for cheapness, Mr.. Chaynor says,
has drowned the old demand for hon
esty, as set forth in the maxim ga fair
days wage for fair days work." and
it has come to pass that as English work
is not fairly paid so neither is it any
longer of fair quality. The age of cheap
ness is also an age of shOddy and veneer.
the cheap Clolnng OF England is of
wretched quality, and the cheap furni-
ture OF wretched construction. Yet
more important is the charge which Mr..
Cheynor prefers against this age of
cheapness 1t is an age with little
or no national sentiment, The demand
for cheap goods no matter whence they
come or by whom they are supplied, has,
according to Mr.. Chaynor, destroyed
much OF England's old time national
pride.
just now, while free-trade emissaries
are invading the United States, it NAV
be worth while to publish Mr.. ChaynOr's
Indictment against English free trade az
the parent of many vices and disasters.
1t runs thus:
l. Free trade has caused or helped to
cause, an eXtravagant misuse of the ma
tional capital in agriculture, and mines,
and manufactures
3 Free trade has rendered us more and
more dependent on foreign countries for
trade. and especially for food.
3. Free trade, by the principle OF it,
sacrifices any national trade or occupation
~ s..v - -cheapness.
4. Free trade has checked that internal
trade between the different occupations
of the country, which is the soundest and
most important of all trades
5. Free trade has rendered the taxation
of the country more onerous and more
partial.
6. 1t has encouraged an inordinate
e As its principle is ''every man for
himself" it sets every man scheming
against his neighbor.
s. 1t loosens a mans hold to his country
by teaching him that cheapness and profit
are the main objects of life.
9. 1t has tended to destroy the techni-
cal education of workmen by breaking
down the system of apprenticeship which
obtained under protection.
TO- 1t is bar to sound honest work, be-
cause it makes cheapness the first requi-
site.
All these evils American protection
lists have warned their countrymen
would follow the introduction of free
trade system to this country. All these
evils have followed its introduction to
England. Nor does Mr.. Chaynor con-
tent himself with formal Indictment;
he proceeds to prove his case. The
American farmer who is often told that
protection cripples his trade may learn
something from Mr., Chaynor's brief
summary of the effects of free trade up
on English agriculture:
A large quantity of arabic lard has been
thrown into grass, and thus land, which
in corn produced go per acre, under grass
now brings only g per acre. 1t is no
answer TO this 10 say that commerce is
benefited thereby for it is an absolute
loss of the national nrodnctiYe power given