The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-03-28
Friday, March Ia, 1890
Cheap Farm Products and Over
Production.


farmers that their products are cheap be-
cause there is an over production, Neither
assertion is true. In the far west farmers
are burning their corn because it is cheaper
fuel than coal. In the coal regions of Penn
sylvania miners are starving for the want Of
food which western farmers are compelled
to burn. The coal barons hold the coal
back to keep up the price, and starve the
miners rather than allow them to work and
sell coal at a lower price, that wages may be
earned 10 buy corn. And railroad companies
refuse to transport coal and grain unless
they are paid all they will sell for, to pay
dividends on watered stock heavy interest
on bonded debt, fabulous salaries TO high
officials, and furnish every accommodation
in luxurious grandure for the ease and COM
fort of the travelling millionaire monopolists
who alone use these expensive cars.
This is but one feature Of a characteristic
system which is worm.eating our whole in
dustrial fabric and reaching beyond that to
the very foundations of our civilization.
There are millions of people halffed in the
country who want to work to earn money
with which to buy this bread that is going
to waste in the farmers hands. But no
single person is allowed to work unless the
trusts and syndicates, who control every
branch of industry, permit him or her TO do
SO. These pets of the government permit
jus: so much to be produced and sold at the
prices they fix upon. The farmers products
are all under their control. The railroads
are virtually owned by this class and they
fill the halls of Congress and our legislatures
with themselves or their servants.
This monopoly class has been busy for
some months "adjusting" a tarffschedule at
Washington, and the new bill has tariff
on wheat, corn, oats, hops. and in short
everything the farmer raises, which is IN
tended TO keep products of the same kinds
out of the country unless duty is paid for
the privilege to sell them in the United
States. We wonder if these men think this
kind of shamming can longer fool the
farmers, who have surplus of all these
things and have to send them 10 foreign
countries to find market? Not pound OF
any of these farm products would come into
this country if there was not cent of tariff
duty to pay.
This species of protection cannot protect
farmers, and it only protects rich manufac-
turers and rich syndicates, enabling them
to pile millions on millions at the expense
of the consuming public. The protection
farmers need is from adulterators of food
which swarm in all the cities, and gamblers
in the exchanges and boards of trade, with
their products. They want protection
against extorton of transportation COM
panies, against tolling in the market places
where their products go for distribution.
The only protection" Congress can give
agriculture is against its enemies in this
country, and not by passing laws against
foreign agricultural products. In this re-
vised tariff bill which the Ways and Means
Committee of the House has prepared, u
cent a pound on hides is provided. This
is intended to amuse the farmers but not to
benefit them. In order to create and sus.
tain a large manufacturing leather interest,
large numbers of hides baye TO be imported
from South America. Under free hides the
leather industry of every branch has grown
rapidly within the last dozen years and is
one of the most prosperous in the country.
A tariff on raw hides will put up the price
Of leather at once, and the price of every
thing manufactured out Of leather, harness,
shoes, betting, etc. But who will this tax
on hides benefit? The farmer who butchers
one beef year WILL if he gets the benefit of
it, receive % or 80 cents more for that bee f
hide. But Armor & Co., of Chicago, who
have monopoly of the entire cattle and
beef business of the West, would reap sew
eral millions annually from this tariff on
hides, while they would not pay the farm
ers one cent more for their cattle. The
price OF shoes, of harness and everything
nade of leather would be increased 3 to so
per cent. The price of leather being in
creased the export of leather products would
be checked and finally destroyed, men
thrown out Of work, with no money to buy
bread and the farmers surplus products in =
creasing with prices dropping still lower.
The same law of trade that governs this
brach of manufacturing industry governs all
others. Unless manufacturers can go freely
into the markets of the world and buy raw
material without let or hindrance, they
cannot make goods for the lowest figures,
and if not they cannot sell in foreign mar
kets, and if they have no foreign market
they cannot enlarge their business and eu-
ploy more hands, who otherwise will not
secure means with which to purchase full
supply of the necessaries of life, and those
necessares will remain in the hands Of the
farmers, and such statisicians as Mr.. Dodge
will call this abnormal condition cover pro
duction" of the necessaries of life, while
thousands are but half fed within sight of
the farm.
Our financial system is contracted, our
manufacturing system is hampered, our
commerce is virtually nil, our agricultural
system is congested, and this abnormal con-
dition of affairs has all been produced and
is continued by the course the government