St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-02-27
AN INoUrRING FARMER.

a prominent wheat grower In Cass
county, North Dakota, probably from
early associations and partisan preiu-
dices, is led to present his doubts to the
Cleveland Leader, oue of the must in
temperate Republican and high tariff
papers in OHIO. He indicates his posi-
ton and occasion for illumination i'm
this:
II am farmer, Republican, and pro-
tectioniSt. My business is raising wheat
in the Red river valley. Our grain is
Target Y exported to Europe. The busi-
ness does not pay as well as it ought,
and it looks to me as if farmers i'm the
United States generally were not we'll
paid for their work.
IF protection builds up home mar
ket, why SO many abandoned farms I'm
New England, where there are so MANY
cities and manufactures? Why is it
that even in Trumbull county, Ohio,
where visited some weeks ago, farms
are selling for good deal less than they
did just after the war? / saw farm
sold for S1S an acre that must have been
worth $50 an acre twenty-five years ago.
'Being farmer, should | still be
pr0tectlOniSt?"
The paper affords vast amount of
theory and statement In reply, very
little having much bearing upon the
questions that perplex the hating pro.
tectionist with his cheap wheat. Incl
dentally he is told that Minnesota raises
TOO much wheat-should substitute flax
and hemp. Why is not the suggestion
equally good for the Red river wheat
grower? 1t is admitted. however, that
the tariff is portal in its operation, and
the farmer is not one of tho chief bene-
ficiaries, but the paper encouragingly
says:
The trouble with our tariff system is
that it's only partially protective, owing
10 the free trade raids made upon it. In
the interest of the farmers and every
0ther producing class it should be made
fuliy prOtectiVe-Which is the aim and
purpose Of the Republican party.''
If the medicine works badly for the
patient, increase the dose. The object
Of the Republican party. then,is to build
higher the walls and not to lower them.
The Ohio expounder admits that there
can be no direct protection that will
cover the chief agricultural products.
but the advantage is TO como in from
the development OF home markets.
Ihe position supposes and requires this
nome market to be large enough to be
able to absorb all the productions of the
farmers. The Eastern farmers have
had local markets, and yet in New Eng
land many farms are abandoned. The
competition of the Western farmers has
damaged them, 1t is aYerred. Then
they need tariff to shut out the cheap
er products of the West. Interstate or
sectional tariffs are the logical outcome.
But whatever the value of home mar
kets. they are utterly inadequte to meet
the needs Of vast agricultural region.
Iheir value is not deprecated. but as
IL IS impossible for them to consume the
productions OF the farmer, the surplus
must search for foreign buyers and in
competition with the producers of the
world This common market must reg
uiate the prices at home. When the
producer is shut up to the home mar
ket alone for any reason, it usually be-
comes glutted, and he is forced to sell
Tor less than when he can find
buyers abroad. The Dakota farmer
IS assured that the policy of the tariff
reformers is calculated to destroy or
greatly reduce the capacity of the home
market. This is partisan and unwar-
ranted view. 1t is insisted that by re-
iieVing the manufacturers of the bur-
dens upon raw material they can push
their wares into other countries, and
successfully compete with European
and foreign manufacturers. Where the
iarih has given them virtual monopoly
ei.tho home market they might be forced