The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-08-27

ley, among whom / was born aud
have always lived and who have
filled my life with Kindness, are the
producers OF the great staple, wheat.
No farmers have more fertile soil;
none surpass them in intelligent
husbandry with which they till that
soil. From it they harvest that
which Ought to bring them inde-
pendence, if not wealth. The Co..
000,0 900 people of this country can
not consume its wheat crop. A
fourth part of that crop, in years of
plenty, a third part, must look for
consumers beyond the sea, where
population have outstripped the pro-
ductiye capacity of the SOIL The
farmer of the valley sends wheat to
Baltimore over your great railroad.
Itpasses through your elevators to
the foreign merchantmen, who bear
it across the sea TO bid for markets
in London or Liverpool. 1t is sold
at rates fixed by the free competi-
tion of that foreign martet. Unless
the farmer is willing to pay freight
both ways there must be u return
cargo. The proceeds of his wheat
are invested in tin plate, for which
there is steady and increasing de-
mand in America. When he reach
es Baltimore on his return he has
tin plate, which he is able to sell at
fair profit to the timer and Gamers
of Maryland at three cents a pound.
The custom house officers forbids
him to land one pound of it until he
has paid two and two-tenth cents a
pound on it-almost as much as it's
first cost. The farmer protests
against this exaction. He asks if
the treasury of his country is SO
empty that it must impose this
heavy tax to get revenue, and is told
that for years past there has been an
overfowing treasury; that the ques-
tion has been not how to increase
but to lessen that revenue. "Why.
then, he demands, ed you put this
heavy tax on the products for which
L have exchanged my wheat2" Be-
cause, he is answered, tthe govern
ment has undertaken to protect a
few certain gentlemen who desire to
go into the manufacture of tin plate
at Pittsburg, and as they think tt ey
cannot carry on the business profit
ably at less than five cents pound
for their product, the government
undertakes to run up the price of all
competing tin plate to that figure. .,
eBnt," says the angry farmer, athc
government does nothing and can
do nothing to raise up the price of
my wheat for me. / must take that
to foreign markets at my own cost.
What right has the government to
make the difference between me
and the man at Pittsburgh? On
what ground does he claim to have
these heavy taxes laid on products
for which have exchanged my
wheat2" The answer comes that if
he is thus protected he will estab-
lish new manufacture and give
employment to American laborers.
"But," retorts the farmer, ''do not i
give employment to American labor
ers, and with profitable markets for
my wheat will L not give increasing
employment to them?"
AT THE EXPENSE OF THE PRODUCER.
Do we not see, then, fellow-citi-
zens, that the so-calIed protection of
the tin-plate manufacturers is not
against the tin plate makers of Wales
but against and at the expense of
the wheat producer of the Shenan-
doah Valley. If you keep out the
products for which he can exchange
his wheat or check their importation
by hoavy duties, you are robbing
him of his market or making it less
profitable to him. / have described
what is really the course of trade of
my farmer neighbor. 1t is true the
farmer does not send abroad his own
wheat and return with the exchange
cargo, but commits many steps in
the transaction to others, but the f.
nal and net return to the fraction of
cent is the same to him, dedpcting
the profits of these middlemen. 1t
makes no difference whether he ex-
changes his grain for tin-plate, or
for erockery, or wool, or steel rails,
or wooden, cotton or silk goods. But
it is not alone to save the expense of
an empty ship on the return voyage
that the farmer must exchange his
wheat for tin-plate or wooden goods.
There is another and more general
law of almost universal application.
and that is that in the long run ex-