St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-10-27
FARMER AND THE TARIFF.
Some Points Presented for the
Consideration of Farmers Before
They Cast Their Ballots---Does
Protection Protect Agriculture?

EoLhC oItlGS 1ECScHCcu lOf tllt1
Consideration of Farmers Before
They Cast Their Ballots---Does
Protection Protect Agriculture?
New York Times.
The news that comes from the North.
western states of the uprising of the
farmers against the Republican party
is not surprising to those who have
watched the current of political events
i'll that part of the country nor to those
who are at all familiar with the relations
of the farmer to the tariff. What is
surprising is the fact that occasionally
some person telegrdphS to the news
papers that there Is great uprising
among the farmers for the defense of
their homes and crops against, the on
slaughtS OF the free traders"
Ii there is any man i'll the community
who will rejoice to see tariff taxes re-
duced it is the farmer. 1t is true that
the pretense of the prOtectiOnists is that
the protective tariff is for the benefit of
the agricuturist, but that pretenSe has
as little foundation, in truth, as that
other piece of gross deception which
tells the workingman that lie must con-
tinue to tax himself i'll order that his
employer may pay him high wages.
The tax he levieS upon himself goes to
the employer, and the share which is
returned to him in wages is very small.
The farmer has taxed himself, like the
laborer. Oh everything that he uses in
his house or On his farm for the sake of
making towns and creating mouths
which he may feed with the products of
his acres.
The result has been disappointing
and disastrous. The farmers have
grown poor as the manufacturers have
grown rich. The home market which
was promised has not yet been built
up. If the theory of the prOtectiOnists
had been realized the American farmer
would now find demand in his own
country for the crops which he grows.
1t was in order that he might have this
home market that he consented to tax
himself. He was willing to protect the
operatives of the manufacturing towns
if he might be protected from the COM
petition of the wheat growers of Europe
and Asia.
The farmer has been disappointed,
and he knows it. The surplus of his
crops goes abroad. This country can
not consume it. In fact, the farms have
increased in number very much more
rapidly than the persons employed in
the protected industries. From 1870 to
1880 the number of farmers increased
1,750, 600. and the persons employed i'll
protected establishments increased only
about 900. If it had not been for the
unprotected mechanics and the persons
engaged in rendering personal and pro-
fesSOnal services the farmers would
not have been able to hold their own.
This is a mathematical demonstration
that the protective tariff has not created
a home market for the farmers.
There are other methods of demon
stratlng this fact quite as clearly. We
are sending to Europe great quantities
of breadStuffS, provisions and cotton.
During tie fiscal year 1887 % per cent
of our wheat crop went abroad, and 90
per cent of our cotton crop. So far as
wheat is concerned, its price is fixed i'll
London, and the American farmer COM
petes directly with the cheapest labor
of Europe. and the still cheaper labor
of Asia. While he taxes himself in or
der to carry out the deluSiOn that the
imported immigrants from Europe are
receiving higher wages than are paid TO
their fellows who remain at home, the
farmer is growing poorer. We no longer
hear of the tales of marvellous wealth
made i'm the wheat fields of the North
west. On the contrary, we hear only of
the mortgaged farms, and of farmers
grooming under the burden of interest
at the rate of , per cent per month. ~
The ''home market" is a deluson and
a snare. The crops grow faster than
taritf-bred mouths. The tax which the
farmer consented to levy upon himself
in order that his neighbOr, the manu-
facturer, might grow rich remains q
burden upon him. He is interested in
commerce. The products of his land
pay very large part of the freight
money that goes into the pockets of the
owners of foreign steamships. He is
the most important factor in our foreign
commerce, and he is compelled to deal
with foreign transportation agents be-
cause the protective system has been
carried to such an extent that we have
very few ships of our own. He is,
therefore, the victim of the tariff, not
only as consumer, but as trader
with foreign countries. He was will
ing, at the outset, to pay more for what
he consumed, and to foregO the foreign
market, on condition that the manu-
facturers would make his domestic
market equal to his supply. TIE man
who thinks that the farmer does not
know that he does not possess that
home market, but is selling all his pro-
duets, both at home and abroad, at
London prices. is the only man in the
world who can imagine an agricultural
uprising in behalf of protection for his
lands and crops. Under low tariff the
prosperity of the farmers was greater
than it has ever been at any other time.
From 1850 TO 1860 the percentage of
gain in farming lands and personal
was nearly 81 per cent. From
1870 to 1880 the gain was only 81 per
cent. The FARMER is intelligent and
knows what his experience has been
under the tax which he consented to
levy on himself in the hope of increas-
ing his wealth.. He knows that low
taxes better his condition and that high
taxes impoverish him. He knows that
of all tie people of the United States
he is most the victim of the protective
system.