The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-30
How Tariff Helps the Farmer.

W HdG BSpoCTltlC1A anu COuIIdulCbOTJ
rubbish the republican high tariff advocates
do talk, to be sure. To one man Tor class
they say one thing because they think it
/ will delude him into the belief that his in-
ierests are safe, and to another of oppo-
site interests they make claims dametric-
ally different, and try 70 make him believe
that he, too, will be benefited by this flexible,
patent reversible tariff, warranted to bleed
everybody except the owners of the ma
chine
They are all things to all men.
When congress reduced the duty on bind
ing tvins the republicans said they did it to
reduce the cost to consumers. Yet they
claim that the tariff doesn't increase the
cost Of anything
When the duty on wheat and corn and
pork and other similar products was in
crease they claimed that it was done in order
to increase the price of what the farmer
has to sell Still, they tell the workingman
who has to buy all these things that the
tariff does not increase the cost of the
necessnries (of life. Likewise they
tell the workingman that they
placed 81 heavy duty on manu-
featured articles to send up the price
so as to ford him higher wages. Yet they
have th9 bold effrontery to try to make the
farmer believe that his clothing and tools
and p' DIVISIONS will not come any higher.
In fe #, the whole scheme of this unpri CT
Piled attempt to bleed the whole country
in cfder to make big money for few
ia fored manufacturers and importing
SPECTATORS is based upon the assumption
Jhat they can play the workingman against
the farmer and badly dupe them both.
But the workingman as well as the farmer
israpidly finding out that when duty Of IS
is put upon $40 coat it makes the coat cost
Sl5. They are also discovering that the
h me manufacturer is not rehgiously holding
down his prices He puts on just as much as
he can, so as TO undersell the inn
ported article and monoDolze the trade.
So that where the duty is S5 on the coat
instanced above be will add at least "a to
his price and still undersell the foreign ar
ticle. But the farmers and workingmen
must all have coats, as well as other things
similarly taxed, and no great mathematical
skill is required to satisfy themselves that
such things now come much higher than
sential revenue basis.
Farmers should see without great diff
Guilty that we raise large surplus of the
products of the soil which we must sell
abroad, where no sort of tariff legislation
we might devise could affect the prices.
While the price of domestic clothing and
other necessities which the farmer must
have Is the same as the price of similar
goods made in Europe. with the cost of
transportation and the American duty
added. the price Of American wheat
exported is TIE price fixed in the London
market. in competition with the wleat
grown by the so-called "pauper labor' Of
India and Russia, with the st of carrying
it from the farms Of the far west deducted
after the sale. So we see that the farmer,
he pays the freight both ways, 50 to speak,
and the high tariff which does nothing to
enhance the value of what he sells Is work
ing day and night. as it were. to increase
the cost of what he buys.
Last year we imported $3.50, 1897 worth of
cattle subject to duty and exported 800, 000,-
600 worth of slaughtered meat and SIG, 6l6,-
9l7 worth of beef cattle. This does not
show how the farmer is benefited by pro-
hibitive tariff.
Though we did not import one we ex-
ported 1928 live hogs. How does high
tariff help thata Against 1888 pounds
imported we exported Is, 504, 97S pounds OF
butter; we imported S,207,0 26 pounds of
different varieties of cheese mot made here
and eaten only by epicures and immi-
grants and we exported "a, 999, S2S
pounds Of good, honest American dairy
cheese; we imported 2, 404 bushels of corn
and exported SO, 5s2, 929 bushels; we i'm
ported no corn meal and exported 3l2, ISL
bushels; we imported 1860 bushels of
wheat and l, 1856 barrels of flour, and we
exported 116, Ala, 129 bushels of wheat and
1874, sos barrels of -four. Just how an in
crease of duties on his products and his sup
plies is expected to help the farmer is not
clearly apparent from these figures.