The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-07-06
THE DEOLINE OF AGRICULTURAL
PROFITS.
From the New York Post

NEW OTh lObl.
The statement of Assessor Wood
that he finds farming land declining in
value so seriously in New York that
WITHIN few years, il things 90 on as
they are now going, we shall have
only tenant farmers in this state, the
mortgages being obliged to take the
land upon which they have loaned
money. ought to lead the farmers to
some study of the. tariff. There is
nothing stranger than the delusion
that is so prevalent among them that
protection is favorable to their inter-
ests. About three fourths of our total
exports consist of agricultural products.
These are sold partly In foreign mar
Kets I'D competition with the cheapest
articles of like kinds produced in the
world. The prices they bring, conse-
/ quently, are the lowest prices that such
articles can be sold for, produced In
| countries where lands are cheapest.
where taxation is lowest, or where
labor is most abundant and wages at
| the starvation point, as for example i'm
lhdla The price of our agricultural
| prodncts In foreign markets regulates
ana nxes the prices of all those sold at
nome, because no merchant could af
ford to sell our products abroad at less
IMAM the prevailing market Irices in
thls country. Notwithstanding this
Is so unquestionably and obviously
true, the strange fact is also true that
majority OF the farmers of the north
ern states have been voting for almost
generation in favor of enormous
retes of tariff duties, with the effect of
increasing the cost to them very largely
OF nearly every kind of manufactured
goods they purchase.
Such mode of conducting business
must necessarily result injuriously 10
the farmers. They comprise nearly
one-half Of our laboring population.
The maintenance of civilized conditions
OF life among them requires that they
exchange the products of their labor
for the products of the labor of other
people. That they should do this on
fair terms would be only Just. That
they should do 1t on favorable terms, if
they can, would seem to require no
argument. If conditions can be estab-
lished by which they can obtain, in
exchange for their corn and wheat,
cotton and tobacco, beef and pork,
dairy and other farm products, the
largest quantities of the necessaries of
life, such as implements and machinery,
hardware and lumber, cottons and
woolens, glassware, chinaware, salt,
coal, ETC., it ought TO be obvious to
every farmer that his circumstances
will be better, that he will be better re-
warded for bis labor ,and that he ali,i his
family will enjoy in greater abundance
the comforts of life, than if he is COM
PEELED to make his exchanges in re-
stricted market where the price of all
he purchases is greatly enhanced, and
the price of what he sells is not enhanc-
ed at all For instance if the farmers of
the United States export 100, 900 900
| bushels of wheat and receive in ex-
change for il in the Liverpool market
lOO,0OO,0OO yards of cloth, on which,
on its arrival in this country, a duty of
$4,000 900 must be paid. is it not OBJ
vious that they get less cloth for a
bushel OF wheat than if there were no
duty, or the duty were only half as
highf But is it not just as obvious
| that II there is protective duty on
cloth, and if the wheat is exchanged
Tor similar cloth made in this country,
the result must to the farmer be the
| same! Ii IL is not the same, then the
protective duty is useless. The price
| OF the homemade, article may not be as
high as the tariff would permit, al
though there Is always an endeavor to
make 1t so by combinations and trusts;
but II 1t were not higher than a free
market and fair play would justify, the
protective tariff would not be desired
or asked for by anybody.
Many farmers believe that although
they do sell in free market and buy
in restricted one, and although this
is present disadvantage to them, vet
that all this is for the general advan-
ta5e, and that they will share in the
resulting prosperity by and by. We
q 1ny that ii is for the general advan-
tage, and especially do we caution them
to beware of any method of dividing the
proceeds OF the national industry where
they can see exactly how they lose, but
cannot see exactly how they gain The
first protective tariff of any real mo-
ment was enacted in 1876 1t is now
upwards OF three score years and ten
that the farmers have been waiting for
| their share of the winnings. If they
have not yet realized it, when may they
ever expect to? A patriotic willing
ness to make sacrifices for the general
prosperity is laudsble; but may not
the American farmers say that it is now
time for other people to take their
turn, and make the sacrifices, if any
are to be made? We hold that no
sacrifices are needed; that the only
thing needed is to let each man and
each class of producers have and enjoy
what they honestly earn; but if further
sacrifices were necessary, those who
have been making them continuously
for more than the Psalmist's period of
life are now entitled to respite.
Farming ought to be the most pros.
porous of all our industries, because
the inherent properties of the soil are a
tree gift OF nature. Conjoined to labor
and capital, it ought therefore to yield
greater profits than ordinary vOcations,
instead of less, and so it would if it
were not oppressed by unequal laws.
Farm products are in greater and more
constant demand than any other, be-