The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-20


these with the past twenty years OF high
tariff:
1880 So 19I 096,1I6
1S6O.....-.......... ...........4... 6,645O45,OO1
Total increase, twenty years....s 3,552, O5I, 769
average yearly lncrease....--....-- l11,6OS,oS
In other words, farming was 90 per cent.
more prosperous under democratic low
tariff than il has been under a republican
high tariff. In exact figures eincrease was
1850 to 1850 (ten years) ...... IS, 35S, 469, $50
1861 t. 1880 nineteen years.. 1914, 449,1S1
When we consider that the population
more than doubled and the wealth of the
country increased more than fve-fold be-
tween 1850 and 1880, the significance of
these figures cannot be over-estimated.
That farming paid under low tariff is
shown by the capital invested in it:
1850 1862
1921, 575,421. &6,645,045, 007.
Yearly Increase, 1o1S per cent.
That it has not paid under protection
needs but glance at the census figures:
S6,645, O45,oO7. s1o,Is7 ,o9e,77e.
Yearly increase, e15 per cent.
In ten years of low tariff our farms have
DOUBLED in value. In tlrsnty years of pro-
lection they have only increased 54per cent.
No other explanation is needed why farm
ing no longer pays, why the farm lands of
Vermont are for sale at 8 per acre, and
why industry is seeking other fields.
During the ''free-trade era" 123, O29
firms we're engaged in manufactures, and
the census shows the following capital in
vested:
1880 1850
s5ss,245,sI. $1,000, s55,715.
Yearly increase, o per cent
The farmer and the mili-owner were
then on equal terms, and both prospered.
Manufacturing was confined TO what
would pay In 1861 the cotton-mill
owners of New England, the woolen-mill
owners of New York and the iron-mongers
of Pennsylvania-about 5000 in number
obtained control of the legislation of the
United States, and this is how they pro-
tected themselves:
1850 1850.
$1,000, S55,715. S2,79O,27s, 500.
Yearly increase, 81 per cent.
These figures are the totals of all man
ufactures, protected and non-protected.
Some industries, like our ship-yards, have
been protected" out of existence, others
have been crippled, and these bring down
the average, for only a small proportion OF
our manufacturers are protected, and they
have prospered not only at the expense Of
the farmer, but at the expense OF the I'M
protected manufacturer.
In lS50-lS60 the American farmer had
the whole world for a market He could
sell anywhere and bring his payment in
foreign goods into the country. If his
payment was taxed. it was only properly
taxed to bear its fair share of the expenses
of government. He was then, and is to-
day, the importer Of so per cent. OF the
foreign goods coming into the country.
He was then the only competitor OF the
unprotected, as he is to-day the only COM
petitor of the protected milLowners.
Imports are the payment we receive for
our exported surplus products. Not one
dollars worth of foreign goods can be i'm
ported in the country except in payment
for American labor and our products ex-
ported.
The protected mill-owner has no other
"competitor" than the American farmer,
with the exception of few unprotected
American manufacturers who may be left
out of the question. No human being
outside of the United States can enter into
competition with the American mill
owner, and inside the United States the
farmer who imports so per cent. is the
only one whom he fears, or the only one
whose competition can affect him.
Ii we had no surplus to sell abroad not
a merchant ship would enter our ports.
Selling is buying; buying is selling. They
are the two sides OF one transaction. II
we had nothing to sell, we could buy
nothing. Trade would stop.
Great Britain forced open the ports OF
China because the Chinese merchants had
something to sell, and their government
would not let them import the payment
The buyers, who could not get what they
I'd 90 nil inn for had
to deliver the payment through the use Of
| force the seller, the Chinese merchant,
! could not bring to bear upon his govern
ment. If China had had nothing to sell,
her ports might have remained wide open
| for a thousand years without one dollars
worth of foreign goods going into them, or
even tramp vessel calling at one Of
! them for anything except water.
It is physical and logical impossioility
! for mill-owner outside the United States
to enter into direct competition with
mill-owner inside the United States. He
must buy our surplus products to get his
| goods into American ownership, and once
| in American ownership they become the
product of American labor There can be no
| competition between the buyer and the
seller, or the seller and the buyer, and the
| foreign mill-owner must be on one or the
! other side of all transactions with Ameri-
cans. All individual competition of every
kind, in any country, must be confined TO
the inhabitants of that country. This
tariff fight is between two Americans-the
American exporter on one side and the
American mill-owner ON the other.
The farmers of this country sold last
year in foreign countries S500,000,000
worth Of surplus farm products. They
took in exchange, or brought back, or
the buyer sent back, in payment foreign
goods. These foreign goods, bought with
our farm products, were, before they
entered the country and while still on the
high seas, the property OF our farmers.
! The minor details of trade and the agencies
| employed in the exchange simply befog
the question. The profits on them were
| profits for the farmers. If foreign mills
| ''sold" more cheaply-"competed," they
call it-than our mills, they competed
only with other foreign mills in their own
| country TO get our surplus farm products,
and the profit of the competition went to
the American farmer-or should have
gone.
These foreign goods do not enter into
competition with the American mill-own-
ers' goods until after the American farmer
or his agents have received them in pay
ment for his surplus exported-until be
was the owner of them, and they were the
| fruit of his toll.
Competition-the only competition pos
sible with the American mill-owner-be-
! gins when the American farmer desires to