The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-01-28
THE FARMERS TAXES LEVIED
TO ENRICH MoNOPOLISTS.
Pigs whot is asked, Gets LiH1e-FaUaey
of Protecton-THe Farmers Taxed to
Pau Dividends to MonopoliSts-
< They Fgr Neither the Buying
Nor Selling Price.
Nor Selling Price.

The article by Hon. John G. Carlisle
in the Forum for January, is one that
every farmer in Georgia and the South
should read with close attention. 1t
is on "The Tariff and the Farmer,
and shows how the falsely styled pro-
tective tariff presses upon the farmer
from every side, with crushing force.
He is at the bottom, and bears his
own burdens increased by the burdens
of ali other classes.
H FALLACY OF PROTECTION,
SAYS Nh. Carlisle: "No logical or
consistent agreement can be framed to
show that the policy of protection en-
courages any industry in this country,
except upon the hypothesis that free
competition in the sale of the products
of that industry would so reduce
prices that people could not profit
ably engage in it. If free competition
tends to reduce prices, whatever ma
terially interferes with such competi-
ton must tend to increase them.
The whole argument admits that
the effect of the protective policy is to
increase the prices of protected articles
produced in this country.
alt is evident that this policy a
be beneficial only to producers of
those articles which would be i'm
! ported to what the protectionists con
slider an injurious extent. Unless a
commodity can be sold here for a
higher price than it a be sold for in
the country where it is produced, it
will not be brought here; nor will an
article be exported from this country
for sale abroad unless the price there
is higher than it is here. If the farm
ers Of the United States would recog
nize the truth of these self evident
propositions they would see at nee
that the protective system cannot pos
sibly increase the prices of the articles
they have to sell, because without it
they could have no foreign competition
in their home market, and with it
they cannot escape the most severe
competition in the foreign markets
where they must sell their surplus.
PRICES FIXED IN FOREIGN MARKETS.
It must not be forgotten that the
prices of all the principal agricultural
products which the farmer sells at
home, are fixed in the free markets
abroad when he sells his surplus, while
the prices Of nearly all the things he
has to buy are fixed in the protected
markets here, and are largely increased
by the total or partial exclusion of
foreign competition and by reason Of
the unnecessary taxes imposed upon
the materials used in their production.
"The products of agriculture con-
stitute from IS to 80 per cent. of our
exports. Wheat, corn, rye, oats, cot
ton, tobacco, beef and pork are the
great staple agricultural products of
this country, exported and sold abroad.
NO HOME MARKET.
eff we had that home market
which the protectionists have been
promising for three-quarters of a cen
fury, the bale of trade, which they
deplore as a great calamity, would be
largely against US every year for all
time to come, because there are many
articles of necessity which must be
procured from other countries, and
our manufactured products cannot be
exported in sufficient quantities to pay
for them.
1t is certain that a century of pro-
lection, in a greater or less degree, to
the owners OF mines and manufacture
ing establishments, has not secured a
home market for the farmer, and the
question he has now to decide is
whether he will continue to tax him
self for an indefinite period in the
future, in order that the impossibility
of success may be thoroughly demon
strated. Finding himself at the end
at a hundred years compelled to ex-
port a larger percentage of his pro-
ducts than at the beginning, it would
seem that no argument ought to re
necessary to convince him that he las
been the voluntary victim of a pt.icy
which guarantees a home market and
high prices for the producers Of the
articles he has to buy, and leaves him
to get such prices as he can in the
open markets of the world for the
articles he has to sell.
BUYING AND SELLING PRICE.
"Mr. Edward Atkinson arrives at
the conclusion that the average an.
nual expenditure of the working PEG.
pie of the United States for food OF
all kinds for themselves and for their
families is $73 per capita. According
to this, the 100000 wage workers
expend $2l9, 600, 900 every year fol-
food. Their whole annual expendi
ture for purely agricultural products
probably does not exceed $3.50, non,
900 at the places where the purchases
are made.
"The Importance of the protected
manufacturing and mechanical Dopu