The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-10-02
The Fallacy of the "Home Market Cry
Exposed.

How long has Il been since eminent republican
speakers we're here in your midst, pointing ont 20
the farmer the glorious results which awaited him
under high protective tarin2 You can almost hear
their voices yet left over, IL were, from the cam
paign OF last year. They cry out for you 10 behold
with the world. Many heard and believed, some OF
whom are here to-day. VIII you please east your
eyes around now in the good county OF Scott, and
all over Indiana and all over the United states, and
then tell me what you think Of the home markets
for the farmer at this timc2 What do you men who
voted tho republican ticket last fall under the dying
promises Of amazing prosperity. have 20 say now oil
the outlook? Partisan mendscity was reduced TO an
exact science in that campaign, and lowered over
every other means OF success e cent the corrupt use
OF money ON "blOcks OF i've" Pixies Peak towers
over the minor elevations ~ the Rocky mountains
You were told, and you believed that republican
victory meant ready demand in your home mark
cts Tor all you had TO sell, and at FULL
liberal, remuneratve prices, while democratic
victory meant hard times. the depression aud over
throw OF BUSINESS and low. scant prices for all the
productions Of your farms. IL would seem rs If an
Overruling providence intended TO rebuke and put
mark Of shame on tho mendaci0us leaders OF great
party by the prompt exposure and awful refutation
which have swiftly followed. With the highest
protective tariff not only in American history but
az this time In the world, our home markets are
worse for the American farmer than ever before
known. With wheat ut 20 cents bushel corn at p,
oats at IS, and the meat market for beef and pork
in oil their staple forms, in the depressed non
remunerative condition, the stupendous lies Of lssS
now come trooping back 10 plague, torment and
choke their inventors let earnestly hope, for
imposed in the United States TO protect the home
manufacturer will go into history accompanied By
the most stagnant, Improbable lOw-proed home
markets ever inflicted on the American laborer and
rOduccr.
But let us at this point take another STEP and in
quire what connection protective tariff has with
home markets and what influence IL can have except
for evil in Obstructing the natural commerce
Of the world. Home markets for the American
farmer not created assisted stimulated by acts
OF congress the subject Of the tariff. We are the
ioodproducing nation Of the world and, after feed
ing ourselves, assist largely in feeding the rest OF
mankind. Our vast surplus productions OF grain, OF
meat and also of cotton and other sources OF wealth.
have their selling prices fixed, both in Europe aud at
home under the unrepealabe law OF supply and de-
mand in the markets Of Liverpool and other great
ccnters and distributing points OF the worlds traffic.
An act OF congress makes a home market for the
American manufacturer and compels you 20 buy In
~ at his own prices, by protecting him from egiti
mate competition but the prices for all you have O.
SELL not only at home, but abroad, fixed and reg
uated in foreign markets, where absolute free trade
prevails, whore competition, without restraint,
exists, and where you come in selling ri
valry with the pauper labor OF every cline
beneath the sun. The total value OF exports
from the United States in 1883 was $685. 639, and
Of this entire amount nearly five hundred million
products live cattle, and raw, unmanuiaotured cot
ton All this surplus OF American agriculture went
not upon home but upon foreign market; not
seller by protection, but upon market where trade
was free, open. and unrestricted. IL Is estimated
that our wheat crop this year will reach FIVE hun
hundred million bushels, and that one hundred
millions OF these bushels will be sold abroad where
competition between the wheat crops Of the United
states, and OF Russia and of the East Indies estab
lish and govern the price OF wheat for all the mar
kets Of the world You sell every bushel you can
spare from your own at this price, thus created
and regulated. In other words, the price OF wheat
aud other American provisions at Louisville, Gin
cinnati, Chicago, and New York is the Liverpool
price, subject only TO such differences as are made
by the expense Of transportation. An old aud in
telgent farmer, in a recent magazine article, thus
truthiuly and indignantly describes the situation on
this point;
"Now, let US see" he remarks chow this internal
system works as to the farmer. His market is for
Sign one. All tho surplus that is over the home de-
mand goes 10 Europe whore congress has
jurisdiction, and where the price is fixed not only
for what is sold there but FOR all that is sold at
home. This is free trade. lie is free
ne finds a demand. And in this market
he comes in contact with the lowest kind Of paupcr
'abor known to the world. How is II when he comes
90 buy? II is then protection. Every article OF
clothing, every material that goes 70 give him
shelter, al that Is necessary 10 carry on his work is
increased as to price twice thrice its value lie
then buys under protection and sells under free
trade"
It is hardly necessary to add that this venerable
and well-nfOrmed farmer does not vote the repub
lican ticket. need Il be said that the organs OF
the robber barons will not be pleased wits his views
any more than they are with mine. Arc you, how
ever, any more enraptured than he Is with home
markets, in which protective tariff adds hundred
per cent all you have TO buy, and leaves you 10
tho mercles Of free trade and competition with
m your desire and IN your natural fRhi 10 Dulf rs
well as 10 sell TO your own advantage, and not Tor
the benefit of others you seek foreign, cheap mar
kets in which 10 purchase what you want and need
Let us see how that will work. Suppose you have
thousand bushels OF wheat 10 sell this ia and you
learn that IL will bring YOU Si,u00 delivered al
Liverpool. Your also wish to purchase thousand
yards, win say, OF cloth, which You a'certained
can be done In foreign markets at 81 yard, and oil
the quality that will suit you Il occ RS TO you O.
make exchange Of your agricultural product for
the manufactured product and you 20 abroad with
your wheat for that purpose, and succeed in doing
So You start back, gratfed with your fair trade in
market where there Is no act OF congress TO rob
you. but you land on the shores of this mighty
republic, where people are called free and equal but
are not, a governments custom-house Official con-
fronts you with demand for so per cent. duty or
that cloth before you can bring il for for sale
to Indiana, OF 20 any other state 1Oup the duty
you have choice; or let us say the cloth is cut In
two In the middle. and you get home with five hun
bred yards OF cloth, worth five hundred dollars. in
exchange Tor a thousand bushels OF wheat, worth
thousand dollars. But suppose you sell your wheat
in this country for thousand dollars
aud seek to purchase the cloth ] have men
TONED In our own markets' The
the so per cent tariff in order get here and IL has
been added into the price and again you COM
PEELED To barter thousand dollars worth OF wheat
Tor FIVE hundred dollars worth OF cloth, because you
are taxed the other five hundred 10 protect the
American manufacturer from honest competition.
Their is no escape for you as 10 you keep party
in power which leyies taxes by millions and hun
dreds Of millions the productions OF your daily
toll in order TO protect. enrich and aggrandile
another and a more favored class than yourselves.
But as the home market arguments OF the prOtcc-
tiOnists scattered to the winds and vanish into
thin air, other claims In behclf OF restricted trade
are put forward, equally fallacious and untrue.
When the advocates Of the protective policy find
themselves beaten down into the arena OF debate
the workings OF every detail and Of every specific
feature Of their complicated and indefensibe sys-
TEN, they turn and with brazen eilrontery
point the general development Of the country the
increased number Of farms the growth and progress
Of agricultural interests and claim IL Is all due TO
tariff legislation while in point OF fact such prOs-
perity as the American farmer has been able 10
achieve has been in spite of such legislation, and by
the expenditure OF almost superhuman energies 10
overcome IL as ahindrance, depression and curse
can easily understand how your fathers, settling
here In "A new, unbroken country, nearly hundred
years ago, and getting a home from the government
at 81. Is an acre. felt that they were growing rich
when their land went up 10 SO 10 $50, 90 $50 and
perhaps 10 SIS an acre But this far more the
result of immigration and the general settlement of
the country hitherto wilderness, than the value of
their crops, or OF any government policy OF
been since your farm lands here grew any
in value? During the last twenty-seven
year high protective tariff has held sway, and run
riot and dominated everything in this country. Can
you sell your lands for more than you could thirty
years ago. On the contrary, the stubtorn statistics
show large shrnkage in the average value of agri-
cultural lands In all the we-setted farming states
and especially In the states OF the Northwest
Take the great states of Ohio, Indiana Michigan and
Illinois. Does their condition prove, or tend 20
prove, that the tariff has fostered the iarmer, crt
lied his fields, and insured him iair returns for the
contents OF his granares? will call Gov. Foraker
as a witness in regard 10 Ohio believe IL Is gem
orally conceded that he is the most rampant and in
fammatory republican in the Mississippi valley,
sticking nothing sustain his cause. aud yet In
his inaugural address as governor, In January 1851
only little more than two years ana lalI ago, IN
the value Of the real estate Of that great
al the time no spoke with what il was
in 1880, seven years before. he was forced to say