The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-03-07

lands when the tariff was light in comparison
with what it is at the present time? II the
condition of the farming interest in these
states is the result Of the increase Of Guilt
waited acres in the new states and the lessened
rates Of transportation, how happens it that
in all these great grain producing states the
farmers who are as well of at the close of the
year Us they were at the beginning are the
exceptionss
II protection is the beneRcent policy that
it is represented to be by Mr.. Blaine, how
happens it that even manufacturers are not
happyl How happens it that combinations
are formed by them to curtail production
and maintain high priest Are the consumers
of manufactured goods benefited by legisla-
ton that prevents foreign competition and
enables the favored few to regulate prices for
their own advantage2 Is q country really
prosperous when cities, which are the con-
sumers of wealth, are rapidly growing and
farming lands are decreasing in value; when
rents in cities are enormously high and ex-
cellent farms are not attractive to tenants at
rentals not equal to . per cent. interest on
half their appraised values
l asked the keeper of a little shop, about
fifteen feet wide and thirty feet deep, on
Pennsylvania avenue, in Washington, what
rent he was paying. ''Three hundred dollars
month" he replied; 50, 600 year." Now,
venture to say that there is not a farm in
Maryland or Virginia, no matter what may
be its size and the cost Of its improvements
that rents for half that sum. Nothing is
clearer than that the wealth producing power
of the country is not in a healthy and pros
porous condition.
In all this unfortunately differ not only
with Mr. Blaine, but with Mr.. Depew, who is
reported as saying in q recent interview that
the condition of the country is superb" that
so enormous wero the last years crops that
the great cast and west railroad lines have
more wheat and corn and beef to be taken to
the seaboard than they can carry. This may
be true. Well managed roads are doing well,
SO well that one of the greatest lines can
spare its president from his post of official
duty to enlighten the people by his eloquent
speeches upon the beauties of protection and
other subjects, and ut the same time declare
liberal dividends. But how is it with the
farmers, by whose productive labor the rail-
roads are supported Are they satisfied with
the present and hopeful for the future? II
Mr.. Depew will extend his tours to Minnesota
and Iowa and Kansas and Nebraska he will
discover that, although they are the most
fertile states in the Union, the condition of
their people is far from being superb" He
will discover also in travelling over the coun-
try, if he keeps his eyes open, that it is the
middlemen, the men who handle the agricul-
tural productions, and the railroads that are
making money, while the producers are una
BILE to make ''both ends meet. }" no matter how
industrious and economical they may be. The
keeper of q stall in Washington market
makes more money in buying, cutting up and
selling an OK than the farmer receives for
raising it. This may be superb for the stall
keeper, but not exactly superb for the farmer.
A MISTAKEN ARGUMENT
A good part of Mr.. Blaine's article is taken
up in comparing the growth of the United
States under protective tariff with that of
Great Britain under free trade. He says
that in twenty years Great Britain added to
her wealth sl5, 1000, 0OO, 600, while the United
States added to hers nearly $33, OOO, OOO, 900;
that the population of Great Britain increas-
ed within the same period-a period of her
greatest prosperity-6,OOO 900, while the pop
ulation of the United States increased 49,
DOC, 900. Such statements show that the
progress of the United States in wealth and
population under protective tariff far ex-
ceeded that of Great Britain under free
trade. Does this prove that free trade is not
favorable to Great Britain and that protec-
ton is the cause of prosperity to the United
States? Great Britain is an old and small
country, whose surplus population has been
steadily flowing to her colonies and to the
United States, and whose immense wealth
is the result Of gainful industry. The United
States is a country of immense extent, whose
wealth has not only been created by her
manufactures, but also and to much greater
extent by the millions of millions of acres
of wild lands which have been converted into
productive farms and fourishing towns The
United States has not only grown in popula-
ton by natural increase, but also by the
throwing open of her ports and inviting the
people of all countries to become citizens of
the great republic. The real cause for won
der is, not that the United States has become
SO rich and populous, but that Great Britain
has gained SO much in the same direction.
The argument in favor Of protective duties,
based upon such comparison, is totally I'M
founded, and am surprised that 50 able
man as MIR. Blaine should have presented it,
nor would he If he had not become SO welded
to the policy of protection that he sees no
evidences Of national prosperity that are not
based upon it, and foresees no i'll that will
not be the result of its abandonment. That
the United States has been largely enriched
by her manufacturers is admitted, but has
not her enrichment been largely at the ex-
pense of the great body of the peoplel She
has rapidly increased in population, but this
increase has been largely the result of the de-
mands of her manufacturers for cheap labor
How expensive this cheap labor may prove
to be, in the character of the laborers, is a
question which is yet to be solved. The pre-
monitions that come from our large cities
on this head are very far from being COM
forting.
If Mr.. Blaine had seen the west as saw it
in 1888, when more than three-quarters of
such states as Michigan, Indiana. Illinois and
Missouri were untouched by the pillow, and
all beyond was magnificent but well nigh
trackless wilderness, and should see it as it
now is, he would not attribute the growth Of
the United States to protection, nor would
he undertake to sustain his favorite theory
by comparing that growth to the slower
rv1rox,th of thu IIr;<oI K;crdoco