Hopkinsville Kentuckian., 1890-05-20

the hands of the few while the people
have grown poorer, that is an addi
tional reason why the system of pro
lection should be abandoned.
In 1850 the farmers of the United
States owned property to the amount
of 1861, $685. $50; in 1860 the assessed
value of their property was $780,
493,5S0. In ten years they had more
than doubled their wealth, and this
transpircd under a low tariff,
II tariff levied not fol
protection, but for revenue only
From 1860 to 1870 the farmers in
creased their wealth by nearly 40 pei
cent. From 1870 to 1880, through
the whole of which period the present
system of high tariff was in full force,
the agricultural wealth of the country
increased from Sl1, ,l24, 4,95S,747 in 1870
to S12, 104, ,001, ,53S in 1880, a gain of
only about 8 per cent. in ten years.
The vast increase in wealth to which
we have referred has not accumulated
in the hands of the farmers, nor have
the laboring classes improved their
condition. We must look elsewhere
il we find this stream of wealth, which,
flowing at high tide, SO excites the
enthusiasm of the champions of pro-
lection. If wealth has accumulated
under the system of protection land
the fact is admitted), the manufac-
turing industries are the sole benefic-
iaries, for we lave already seen that
these are the only industries which
can get even temporary benefit out
of high tariff; that the manufacturer
has grown rich under protection while
the farmer has grown poorer is per-
fectly certain if figures are trust
worthy.
In 1870 the total value of real and
personal property in the nine manu-
featuring States, including Pennsyl-
vania, was estimated at Sl5, 200, ,032,
6S7. In 1880 the total value of real
and personal property in these nine
manufacturing States had increased
to S19,630,000,000, while between the
same periods the value Of farms, farm
implements, etc, in the six New Eng
land States had fallen off from $707,-
942, ,439 to S71, S46,05S, decrease in
farm lands and farming property of
over $36,000,000, while the increase in
wealth in the nine manufacturing
States during the same period was
over I, 0000OO,000.
As would have been reasonable to
predict from the beginning, the sys-
tenn of protection which as been con
tieued through these years of peace
when an overilowing treasury has at
tested that the government was not in
need of revenues, the result has been
to enormously increase the wealth OF
the manufacturer and to compel his
poorly paid employees to resort to
labor organizations to prevent actual
starvation, and the farmer has been
consumed by taxation while he has
waited for the home market which
was promised, but which has never
come.
Protection has lost its snchantment.
The farmer understands that all it
brings him is increased taxation. and
this he knows is not a blessing. He
understands that if he is to live and
raise his family with even the ordi-
nary comforts Of life he must rid him
self of system which obliges him to
sell his own products in the lowest
market and which prevents him from
buying as cheaply as he might, and
the hollow sham of an increased duty
which this bill offers him will not de-
ter him in his fixed purposes to break
away from system that confscates
his hard-earned profits.
In the first place it should be stated
that this proposition to increase the
duty on wool does not emanate from
the farmers; it was devised by those
who are engaged in other pursuits