Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-27
Tariff and the Farmers.

ly discussion throughout the country,
The disastrous results to the democ-
racy from the introduction and passage
of the Mills bill in 1888, has taken
much of the enthusiastic free-trade
nonsense away from the democrats.
They have, however, turned their Brit
ish- -bedkins toward the farmers of the
west, and are endeav0ring to poison
this class against the entire system of
protection. They attribute all the
financial and commercial difficulties to
the Outrageous system of tariff taxa
tion." There is just about as much
logic in this swindling free-trade doc
trine, as there is in the charge of the
resubmissionist, that our troubles are
all owing to our outrageous prohibi-
tory laws.
The farmers are just as much bene-
fitted by protection as any other class
Of people. Farmers make very few
sales to each other. Their income is
practically wholly derived from the
sale of their products to individuals en-
gagged in other callings. If by some
unforeseen circumstance the immigra-
tion bureau now organized and assidu-
Ously working to attract immigration
to Kansas, could place 100, 900 farmers
on now unOccupied quarter sections of
land in the state, it would not add one
cent per bushel to the price of wheat or
corn, or anything else which a farmer
has to sell, and from which he must
derive his income. Such imported
farmers would at once become COM
petitors and help to swell the bulk
of corn, wheat and cattle, which now
apparently flood the markets for these
commodities. On the other hand if
this immigration bureau could induce
100000 men to come to Kansas and en-
gage in mining, or manufacturing, such
influx would not become competitive
producers of. but consumers of the prO-
ducts of the farmer. The great west
does not want more farmers, but more
people who will buy and consume what
the farmer has to sell. What is true
of Kansas is true of the United States.
The total amount of commodities i'm
ported into this country during the last
year, exclusive of tea, coffee, and other
articles not produced in this country,
was about $500, 100000. These manu-
factures and productions compete di-
rectly with our home labor, as we are
producing like commodities here, and
to produce this enormous amount fur
nished employment to at least l, 800, 900
hands. 1t will thus be seen that not
withstanding the present tariff the cap
italists and manufacturers of other
countries sent over this vast amount
of their mechanical work, consisting of
machinery, edge tools, iron and steel
manufactures of every description,
leather, furniture, cigars. clothing, cot
ton and wooden goods, and other goods, |
all of which ought to be and could be |
manufactured here at home.
If all these commodities had been
manufactured in the United States,
over l 300, ,OOO'hands would have been
employed here to the manifest advan-
tage of our workiDgmen, and the
farmers of this country would have
had an additional near market for
everything which these ], 800, 900 hands
and those dependent upon them would
consume of farm productions.
This large number of laborers con-
sumed more food than the total exports
of all breadstuffs and provisions to for
eign countries during the same period.
And if this large number were engaged
in factories and workshops in this
country, turning out the same mechan-
ical work which we import, they would
consume this food in our own country.
The great need of. the agricultural
west and south is a diversity of en-
ployments. They require more facto-
ries, more mechanical works, and the
farmers above all others realize this.
They see the supreme Importance of
seeking that greatest of all outlets-the
consumers of the food-the men who do
our mechanical work in Europe brought
over and lodged near by their farms. ;
Let the mechanical work which we are
now employing England and other /;
to do be performed in the {
states of the west and the south and ,
%e shall not have the large surplus of 3