The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-06-04
Less TaIlx aud More IseduclIon.

a reduction of tariff taxation. Their
eyes have been opened to the true
cause of their poverty and the man
ner in which they have been hum
bugged by the Republicans for the
past twenty years. This is shown
by the following letter of Mr.. S. III.
johnson, the head of the Farmers
Alliance of Illinois to the Chicago
Herald
Farmers in these organizations
and out of them have been studying
the tariff question, aud seven out tof
ten have become dissatisfied and do
not regard the new schedule with
much favor. The ways and means
committee seem 60 believe that they
can pacify the farmer by putting a
tariff on wheat, corn, oats, barley,
beans and cabbage Now any far
ner Of ordinary sense or intelli-
gence should know this is huns
bug, and will not raise the pfieS of
his products one cent, nor would sS5
per bushel on corn help him a par
ticle. If they are honest in. trying
to help us, why don't they vote us
bonus on these products as they
do on sugars?" 7ea aesn saf
Mr.. Joseph Medin, the editor of
the Chicago Tribune, the leading
Republican organ of the Northwest
has turned against the tariff policy
of his party and is kicking the life
out of the theory of protection and
exposing the hypocrisy of those
who are vainIy dinging it into the
ears of the farmers as tho follwing
very vicious attack win clearly
indicate. @
"Where, then, is the remedy
from the heavy burden of 90 per
cent tax on the necessaries of life,
both imported and domestic? There
is only ono element or class able
to remove it, and that Sampson is
sleeping in the lap of Delilah and
will not awaken. /, of course.
mean the farmers. The plnndered.
unprotected, twenty-five million
of geese-like farmers who permit
themselves to be plucked of almost
every feather by a hundred thou
sand protected monopolists. So
long as the simple-minded bucolic
class do not "kick" off the burdens
laid upon them Congress will not
disturb the war taxes aud the man
ufacturers' corresponding bounties.
While the ploughinen act like
lssachar's ass, and crouch between
the burdens, both will be kent on
their backs. The lubricants live
tocilized in the cities, and plot and
scheme for the promotion of their
selfish interests and bring their
united lobby influence to bear on
members of Congress, whereas the
farmers live isolated and scattered,
and can't or don't combine in
defence of their interests. Hence
they are unprotected, unrepresent-
ed and unconcious of what keeps
them poor. They are captivated
by the spccious cry of "protection
to American industry" tho they
get none of it; and of the value of
protected" home markets to them.
as If protected monopolists eat any
more than other men. Not until
the verdent, imposed upon agricul-
tnrists wake up Ito realization of
the confidence game being played
upon them will the war tariff be
reduced or reformed; but when will
they get their eyes open and act?'
Mr.. Medill can rest assured that
the letter of Mr.. Thompson is am
pie evidence of the fact that the
farmers of Illinois arc now wide
awake and are acting, and that
they are determined that the day
of reckoning shall soon come.
They now appreciate the fact that
Ignorance of the tariff question has
made it an easy matter for the mo-
nopolists of the Republican party
to impose upon them, but they are
no longer ignorant. They have
been supplied with tariff reform
literature which has caused them
to cape with astonishment at the
manner in which they have been
robbed to enrich the manufacturers
of the East. For instance, they
have been shown that in the much
talked.of ahome market they paw
s11 for eultivafor plow when the
same implement is sold to foreign
ers for $40, and the same discrfm-
ination exists in the prices Of all
the agricultural implements they
are compelled to use. These facts
have been brought to the attention
of the farmers of the country by the
tariff reform clubs which have been
organized throughout the West,and
the result revolt of tho
farmers against the party which
has practiced such a gross imposi-
tion upon them, and thus the revolt
has carried into the ranks of the
tariff reformers several of the lead
ing Republican journals of the West.