Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-01-02
WHAT BENEFITS THE FARMER GETS.

The Eldorado Democrat of last week
contained the following letter from an
Iowa farmer, describing a country
debating school and the arguments
there advanced:
PUYALLUP, Nov. 2s.-The boys got
up debatin' school Tuesday night,
and I went over to see what they would
say. 1t bein' the first night, and no
one prepared, the president said they
better talk about the tariff cause they
all understood that, and at it tha went.
Philo Patterson and Jim Nixon cho0s-
ed up, and each took three debaters,
only Jim couldn't git his last man to
stick, and so he tuck Mike, my hired
man. Mike set still and waited fer
them all to hev they say, knowin' well
they wouldn't be no time fer him
when they got threw tellin' all they
knowed. They agreed to let every fel-
Ter on one side speke first, and then let
every feller OH the other side take their
turn tacklin' it. Philo, he tuck the
protection side, cause he thinks that
way, and he laid down the law in good
shape. He showed how a tariff law
made forren feller pay sumthing for
the privilege of bringin' things into this
country to sell, and showed how all
that privilege money went rite strate
into our treasury and was just as much
cur money and his money as anybody
else's money, and then he showed how
rich that privilege money had made us
all. Why. 1 felt easier hearin' him
talk than 1 he'd in years an years,
cause the surplus in the treasury
amounted to so much that my share
would purity nigh build me new barn,
and I've wanted one long while. And
while 1 watched Philo gittin gladder
and gladder at his increasin' riches, I
couldn't help hopin' he would git
enough to buy his children warmer
close all around. fer they have been
purity thin-dressed ever winter since
I've knowed 'em
/. Then his first man showed that a
plowmaker in this country could get
fair price fer his goods, cause they
wasn't no way fer forren plowmaker
to sell here without payin' fer the priv
ilege more than he made on the plow,
which put all the plow maxim in the
hands of our own compatriOts as he
said. And then inabled them to run a
big bizness, and to give work to heap
of hands, and to pay them big wages.
far bigger than was paid in furrin
countries; and all the men what worked
on American plOws could prosper and
be noble and hold their heads up with
kings and queens of countries where
the pawper labor was. He growed
awful warm about the hame-strap when
he talked that way, and held up for the
nobility of American labor, and didn't
want no man to debace it to the level
of labor in them fur lands. But 1
couldn't help thinkin' of the two men
that cum to my house along in May
and staid all mite. They had notice
from plowmaker at South Bend that
he could git his work dun cheaper by
the fellers that cum to this country
aud these two, along with about fifty
others, he'd to go, though they didn't
hev a dollar apece fer their wives to
live on while the men got out and
tramped for job. Nor couldn't help
thinkin' about barrels of bread and
meat we put up here to send to the mill
hands at New Albany what got locked
out from June to January.
An the third feller, he was in fer
reading editorial in the Neacs about
the matter, but the president wouldn't
stand thet, cause folks all over the
house objected. Then the last feller
Oh Philo's side he tuck the ground thet
all bein' trOO what his friends he'd sed,
it showed where a farmers interests
was. Here was a big factory built up
cause there was a sale assured to
American goods. That factory was
protected by the tariff law from any
man that lived in another country and
wanted to sell his goods here, SO our
factory man got all the bizness. Hevin'
all the bizness he could sell at fair
price and pay his men fair wages, SO
they could take comfort in life and rase
THAR children proper. And these
workmen, gettin fair wages, could live
well. To do that they had TO buy bred
and meat and vegetables. THAT'S
where the farmer got in his work." sed
Pnilo's debater, triumphant like.
s.That's why farmers are for tariff
law. More factories, more men; more
men, more bread wanted; more bread
wanted, more money for wheat"
That looked good, tool swear if it
didn't, And then he went on to say
what would we all do if the factories
were to shut down suddentS They was
60, 900 men at washington at work in
factories. They was also IL 900 bushels
A~0