Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-06-20

any one industry, and the more oner-
Gus and intolerable becomes its bur
dens upon the diminished remnant,
the unprotected class,
from whose labors its advantages are
derived.
Let us consider the question from
still another point of view: the farmer
is told that he receives some benefe
from the system, and he is expected
to be sufficiently credulous to believe,
that the evident disadvantages it en-
tails on him, are made good to him
through returns of some indefinite
rider, in some unaccOuntable way.
The Aggregate wealth of the country
at any given period is fixed amount.
In the arbitrary distribution of the
same effected by the tariff system, as
between the farmer maTIfaut-
uren the farmer can. receive more
than his just share; he can receive an
exact equivalent, or he can receive
Less These aEe, al, the assumptions
that can be made, and one of them
must be true" II he receives more
than his legitimate amount, the man
ufactuTer must receive less than his
due share, and the system must be'fOr
him an injurious one, Then we are
confronted with the anomaly of a
keen, shrewd, enterprising money
making element of the, community,
exerting all it's abilities, and spending
money lavishly, to maintain and per
petuate a system that is daily impOv-
erishiQg them, and enriching another
class at their expense. To affirm such
an unreasonable conclusion, is to con-
fess a dense ignorance of human ma
tire, and this assumption cannot be
true. If we suppose the farmer OBJ
tains an exact equivalent, the same
argument applies; for it supposes that
men whose chief aim in life is to make
money, and get rich, are so foolish as
TO defeat that object, by persistently
wasting money, in ways that. yield
no returns; and this assumption can
not be true; and the only one left is
that the farmer gets less than his due
Share; that his countless indirect con
tributions exceed his returns; that the
former are actual and the latter hypo-
.theticaI. .. -,r, ... ,..
This theory is in harmony with the
facts, and when adopted contradictions
vanish, and the actions Of capitalists
and manufacturers become ineligible,
while upon any other hypothesis they
are not.
The prevailing general depression
experienced by the agricultural class of
the country at the present time will
prove an effective educator in political
economy. Farmers must begin to APP
prcciate and realize with increasing
distinctness, the growing discrepancy
between the theoretical advantages of
protection, as taught by its advocates,
and its practical results as experienced
by themselves. The baTefaced mock
cry of Ievying higher import duties,
on farm products, ostensibly for the
farmers benefit, when he must export
the same things, and cannot derive
the slightest advantage from it, and at
the same time raising the duties on
many of the necessaries Of life, that he
must purchase, is but adding insult
to injury; robbing him with such a
thin, shallow, contemplate disguise,
that its expected non-perception by
him is an insult to his intelligence.
He will soon learn that there is no
sovereign potency in protection to
avert the evils incident to and inSeper-
able from speculation, idleneSS, aud
extravaganza, and the CO-eXiStence of
dry seasons and short crops at home,
with good crops and lessened demand
in other countries, and hence less
cncd crop with diminished price in
this country; he will learn that it is
poWerless to suspend the law of sup
ply and demand, or abolish the relation
between cause and effect; and he will
eventually come to the conclusion,
that the whole system is based on
human greed, and SclliShnCSS and in
Justice; and has never been of any
earthly use to any community at any
time, under any circumstances under
heaven; and then his emancipation
from the CALLING, grinding letters of
this damnable, degrading, impoverish-
ing political heresy will speedily folio W