The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-12-21
Some Plain Talk to Farmers.

cent speech before the Wheat Grow
ers' Convention, at St. Louis, speak
ing of the effect upon the farmer of
our tariff laws, said:
Il believe in tariff to raise Gus
toms duties, in sufficient amount
with the sums raised by the internal
revenue system to defray the neces-
sary expenses of the government
economically and honestly admins
tered. believe the tariff under our
constitution has no other mission to
perform than to raise revenue
There is no clause in the constitu-
tion giving congress the power to tax
one class of our people to enrich
another class. If there is such q
clause | would like to have some one
point it out. There is no moral
right, no justice in legislation to en-
rich one class at the expense of
another
"The constitution in so many words
says there shall be no privileged
classes in this country, and yet Con
gress proceeds to make a class priv
ileged to tax the consumers ON all
their products, keeping all competi-
tion away from them, and enabling
them to derive large profits on their
goods, and thus to lay up princely
fortunes secured from the people who
have earned the money thus obtain
ed by the sweat of their brow. Is
one man better than another in this
said ODE free country, or one class
better than another that they should
be secured in the extraordinary priv
ilege of growing rich at the others
expense?
81 have only been speaking Of the
right, of the justice of such legisla-
ton. Now let us see its effect upon
the farmer. Let us take the matter
right home to the wheat grower and
ascertain how it effects him. Let us
suppose one of you has raised 1000
bushels of wheat, and many of you
have raised several thousand, and
you are going to Europe and take it
to Liverpool and sell it at 81 per
bushel. The gentleman from Chi
cago has told you that the Liverpool
market controls the price for wheat
throughout the world. You receive
81 900 for the wheat, and finding
goods low over there, you lay it all
out in goods to bring home with you.
You ship the goods to New York,
but when you get there you find an
average duty Of At per cent on what
you have bought, for that is admit
ted on all hands to be the average
duty imposed by law. On the 81 900
worth of goods you must then pay
$40 to the custom house officers to
be placed in Uncle Sans treasury,
leaving you only $3.50 for the wheat,
the tariff thus costing the farmer on
every $1,000 worth of wheat $40
Is it any wonder he is growing poor?
But it is some consolation to know
that this $40 has come into the
United States treasury.
Let us suppose, however, that in
stead of buying this goods in Eng
land he waits until he gets to New
York and buys them. The Ameri-
can manufacturers are protected by
the same average duty, and freight
besides, so he pays the $40, not into
Uncle Sans pockets at all, but into
the pockets of the American manu-
factursrs who, by law, by being pro-
tected from foreign competition, can
charge this extra price, and put it
into their own pockets, and the gov
eminent gets not one cent of it. This
is single operation of one farmer,
but it affects every farmer in the
same way and to the same extent.
1t is making the manufacturing
classes rich and the agricultural
classes poorer.
"If the consuming classes of this
country had any idea that they
were paying one-tenth part of the
taxation they are to these privileged
classes there would be such revo-
luton in public opinion, if not in a
worse form, as we have never heard
of before. 1t is not taxation for the
benefit Of the government, but for a
class. 1t is robbing che many to en-
rich the few. 1t is making million
airs of one class and peasantry in
it's worst form of another. 1t is de-
pressing the value of farming lands
and farm products in every State in
the Union. 1t is plastering upon
our farms mortgages that draw worse
than Spanish fly blisters. 1t is max
ing farming the poorest paying,
hardest working business known in
this country"
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