The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1890-08-02

which the diabolical Republicans have
so long imposed upon the too credulous
and short-sighted farmer.
1t Is not our present purpose to make
an extended reply to the article in
question, which neither its merits nor
the necessities OF the occasion require,
but simply to submit single question
to our contemporary which seems peril
nent in this connection. In truth, Mr..
Crothers IN his philippe, repeats the
chronic error of his free trade associates
in assuming as true what is not the
act,-that protection has robbed the
farmers pocket and not replenished it.
He will not deny that protective pol
icy has built up and fostered grand
system of domestic manufactures. Ma
tive American skill and ingenuity, un
der the stimulus of home competition,
have wrought so successfully for the
benefit of the American consumer, be
he farmer, mechanic or laborer, that
nearly every necessary commodity of
life can be bought at home as cheaply
as abroad.
Now ought not the fact be apparent
to every farmer of intelligence, nay
ought it not be apparent even to MIR.
Crothers, that any system such as the
protective system, which tends to re-
duce the number of persons engaged
in agricultural pursuits, must be ben
efcial one to him, because an increase
of the number of consumers of farm
products, must necessarily increase the
demand for these products9
Now as the prices of farm products
always depend upon the supply and
demand for them, it follows as an inev-
table conclusion, that their prices must
be largely governed by the relative
number OF producers and consumers,
or as Mr.. Blaine puts it relative to ex-
isting conditions with the farmers, "they
must produce less, or the number Of
consumers of their products must be
increased"
And it is Just here that the benefits
of the protective policy become the
more apparent. 1t encourages the de-
velopment of great manufacturing en-
terprlses, drawing laborers from the
farm where they are producers, and
places them at work in the mill, the
forge, in the mine, and in the factory,
thus reducing the great army of agri-
cultural laborers, and swelling the still
larger army of consumers of bread
stufs engaged in manufacturing pur-
suits. Now as there are about sixty
six millions of people in the United
States, of whom about twenty-five mil
lions are wage-earners, of the latter
nearly eight millions being engaged in
agricultural pursuits, it must be plain
that if the farm products of these eight
millions of farmers are allowed to come
into competition with the cheaper pro-
ducts of Europe and India, that the
supply of these cheaper products would
so far exceed the demand for them,
that the farmer would be compel
led to sell his farm products at
far lower prices than he now
receives for them, or, on the
other hand, abandon his farm, To
prevent these evils the Republican party
has in its tariff laws said to foreign pro-
ducers-If you wish to import farm
products into the United States-where
otherwise you could undersell Our farm
ers in their own market-you must pay
a duty on these products.
In this manner the Republican party
by its protective policy guards the in
terest of the farmer. This is fairly,
honestly, and logically the tariff ques-
ton in relation to the agricultural in
terest. The cause for the depression
in these important interests, is to be
sought for in some other direction, free
trade orators and writers to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.