The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-09-16
THE s~uB.TREAsURY BILL
Dr.. BealI Gives the Caldwell County
Plan in Detail.

Mr. EDIToR:-We have the same
object as the advocates of the Sub
Treasury scheme. No1ice we do not
approve the principles but the eSect
of the bill-viz: To relieve ourselves
and all other classes from the unjust
burdens imposed upon us.
When we say this much they at
once demand that W. amend their bill.
We reply that it is unfair to ask this,
because it is based ON false principles,
as we have shown; because the remedy
proposed will aggravate the disease
instead of curing it; becaue its
whole foundation is unsafe, and any
thing built upon it will be unsafe.
Now the caldwell Plan" in an
swer to this demand, offers something
based on the principles of our order,
on the principle of a sound political
economy and on principles al ways held
by the wisest of our Southern states
men-a plan broad enough TO include
not only the farmer but every other
class throughout this broad land
which suffers from the same evils and
burdens, and which invites all to ON
with us in the great battle against a
common enemy. We ask the reader
to refer to that plan as published in
The PROGRESSIVE FARMER of July
18th.
First, we demand that the products
of our farms may go into any market
of the world where we can get the
highest prices. Prices in the interior
are mainly governed by prices at the
seaboard, and prices at the sea
are governed by the supply and de-
mand of the world. This law is as
fixed as the law which regulates the
circulation of the blood, and the Sub
Treasury plan or any other plan which
inCerferes with it is like tieing an ar
tery-the part affected is SUE to suffer
if it does not perish. We demand
again that we may go into the
markets of the world and ex :hange
our products for what we need with,
out unnecessary restrictions If we
have the right to exchange at all, we
have the right to do it on the best
terms for ourselves. That is, if we
have the right to sell in a high market
we have the right to purchase in a
low market. The present unjust tariff
interferes violently with all this and
is one great cause of our burdens
We do not ask the abolition of the
tariff, as unfairly stated by your o
respondent, but we de demand such a
modification as will relieve the farm
ers and all classes from unjust dis
or limitations.
The advocates Of the present val
tariff do not pretend that it is merely
for the support of the government.
They urge it on the plea that it PRO
tects the Infant industries of the
country-"infants that have grown
into giant ~monopolies, absorbing the
wealth of the country at the expense
of all other classes. Is it necessary
for tn support of the government to
lay a tax of one hundred and fifteen
per cent. on common window glass,
and which poor men must have, and
only fifteen per cent. on French plate
glass which only the rich man uses ?
If necessary to lay a nigh tax at all,
would it not look more like justice to
lay it on the rich and not on the
poor2
Senator Vance, in his seat in the
Senate Chamber a few weeks ago, in
the name of the American people, de-
manded the reason of this difference,
and its advocates were as dumb as
oysters. Though they did not dare to
answer, we know that the true reason
was not to put money in the United
States Treasury but into the pockets
of the "Gnfant industries" Their real
object IS not revenue, as your CORES
pOndent would have us believe, but
to raise a solid wall over which no
one can pass to the cheap markets of
the world, and thus compel US to
buy Of the great manufacturing mo,
nopolies of the United States at a
price corresponding to this high tax.
Even the poor plea that our capital is
thus kept at home is false. Take the
case of the Coats Spool Thread Com
pany, which is a British manufactur-
ing company. This unjust tariff com,
pels the American farmers wife,
whenever she buys a dollars worth of
spool thread, to pay a tax of sixty
cents. That is for the same amount
OF thread for which the British farm,
er's wife pays only n dollar, the
American farmers wife is compelled
by these law makers to pay one dollar
and siTty cents. And the injustice
does not stop at that. The Coats
Company, seeing that they could get
in this country sixty per cent. more
for their thread than in England, es
ia 0lished an extension branch of their
factory in Rhode Island, aud of, this
branch only twelve and a half (l24)
per cent. Of the stock is in the hands
of Americans, and when the company
dn0lopoc O dividend COZ IN o,+ oe