Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-10-17
WHAT THE MARKETS TEACH.

WHAT THE MARKETS TEACH.
Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette.
The farmer, who is pre-eminently the
object of solicitude on the part of those
who are clamorous for tariff reform
studiously refuses to accept the free
trade theory and continues to vote fol
protection. Hence we have the simu.
lated amazement of the philanthropiC
doctrinaire at the ineffable stupidity OF
the farmer, who cannot appreciate a
good thing when it is shown to him.
The whole farming industry, say these
so-called reformers, is being taxed to de-
cadence and ruin through the tariff, and
yet these farmers are so asinine as to
keep on year after year voting to con-
tinue the very burdens which are crush
ing them to the earth.
1t would be amazing, indeed, if so
large and intelligent a class of citizens
should vote against their own interests.
But they do no such foolish thing.
They know by their own experience that
the free-trade theory is delusion and a
snare, and they reject it They believe
with Senator Cullom "that the farmer
has received more benefit from the tariff
than anyone else; that his benefit is
more permanent and lasting, and that,
above all others in the community, he
should vote for protection in the future,
as he has for the last thirty years" He
knows that in nearly everything he has
to buy-in iron, steel, glass, clothing and
other necessaries- s-prices have been
steadily reduced under the operations of
the tariff, and that while this cheapening
process has been going on the business
interests of the whole country have been
immeasurably enlarged and benefited.
There is no paradox in the attitude of
the farmer towards the tariff. He has
been studying the markets for the past
quarter of century, and has not been
duh scholar. Senator Cullom puts the
whole matter in a nutshell:
In regard to the fact, study of the
markets show that it is not true of a sin
gle article except those which, for physi-
cal reasons, we cannot produce in this
country, or those on which the duty has
HOt Deou enough 10 De prOUecClVe ana TO
enable us to get started in their manufac-
ture. With these exceptions there is no
angle article which the farmer consumes
which is not cheaper than it was under
the revenue tariff and cheaper than it
would be to-day if it were not for the de-
yelopment of home industries by pro-
tective tariffs. His food, his clothing, his
household goods and furniture, his house,
his barn, his implements, tools and fences
are all cheaper, while everything he pro-
duces sells for more, and his land has
trebled or quadrupled in value
Why should the farmer vote to weaken
or destroy policy that has been so ben
eficial to him and to the whole country?
If he is told that it is only by breaking
down the barrier of the tariff that ''the
worlds markets" can be reached he can
reply that of American farm products
foreign Nations only take 10 per cent,
while our own people consume 80 per
cent. Verify, the farmer who stands by
protection and appreciates the value of
the home market is level-headed to de-
gree which places him beyond the
sophistries of the revenue reformer and
anchors him safely on the side of that
policy which looks to the greatest good
of the greatest number.