Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-10-02

duty OF thousand dollars bushel on
wheat and corn would not raise the price
in any market in the Union one cent on
. million Of bushels. The provision is
put in the bill as a mere sham, fraud
and humbug, to delude only the most
ignorant men. They may be found
somewhere, but surely not in this Dis
trict
The bill adds heavily to the onorous
taxes we have so long borne. 1t in
creases the cost of almost every thing
We buy. 1t increases the cost of foreign
goods and of home made goods enor-
mously. 1t is intended to do that 1t
is its effect If not its distinct and avow-
ed purpose. This is done in the inter-
est Of manufacturers, of combinations,
pools and trusts. It will give to un-
scrupulous combinations of manufactur-
ing capitalists additional power and in
ducement, to combine and fleece the peo-
pie, as so many pools and trusts have
been doing for years. All of this our
Republican friends take pride" in, and
will see to it that their candidate ''takes
pride" in it.
We have been told by the most emf
nent living Republican that in the Nc
Kinley bill "there is not section or
line in the entire bill that will open the
market for another bushel of wheat or
barrel of pork" In all the Union no one
has ever risen to dispute this declaration
of Mr.. Blaine. Mr.. Mckinley, in his re-
port confesses that agriculture is great
ly depressed, after quarter of CEN
thry of high protection. His theory and
the theory of the bill is not to aid the
farmer by opening new, or enlarging old
markets, but by increasing the cost of
every thing the farmer must buy.
We have been told ten thousand times
by the Republican leaders that the high
est tariff duties we have had in our whole
history have enabled US to accumulate
wealth with rapidity without prece-
dent in the history of the world. We
have been assured that in this wonder
full prosperity farmers have been full
| participants. If that has been true, the
great increase in tariff taxes proposed
by the Mckinley bill would not be so
wholly unjustifable. But what are the
factsP Since 1916 we have had no sub
stantial changes ia the tax laws of Ohio.
ALI property is to be valued at its true
value in money. This includes farm
lands. The value of lands is ascertain
ed by the personal examination of Off
GERS, usually men of the highest char
acter. We have had that done every ten
years for forty years. Now let us see,
when tested by the valuations placed on
our lands, what influence high or low
tariff has had on the property of Ohio
farmers?
Between 1850 and 1860 the lands of
Ohio, as returned by the appraisers, in
creased from $266, 751, 102 to $492, 593, 5S7.
This was period of the lowest tariff
taxes we have had for seventy-four
years. 1t was an increase of 1926, S42, 5S7,
or eighty-four per cent. In 1880 the
lands of the State were valued for the
purpose of taxation at $705, 821, ,O94. The
increase in twenty years of high protec-
tion was $213, 227,2 or $12, 615, $40 less
than it was under the ten previous years
OF low tariff; or an increase of only
forty-three per cent in twenty years of
high, as against an increase of eighty
four per cent. In ten years of low tariff.
But how has 1t been during the last ten
years? Are lands advancing in value in
OhioT If high protective tariff is bene-
hcial to farmers surely it should be seen
in the increased value of their property.
But what are the facts? We have this
year made reappraisment of the lands
Of Ohio. Sworn appraisers have done
this. Some of them were Republicans
and some OF them were Democrats. /
believe the valuation is as high in pro-
portion to salable values as any APP
praisment ever made in the State. The
returns have not yet been fully
published, but the lands of
Clinton County have decreased
in value $1,50O,00o; Green Coun-
ty, $1,S57, 900; Clarke, 1,4OO, 900; Fay
cite, $43O,0OO; Ross, $1,000, O0O The
decrease of the value of lands in this
district alone during the past ten years |
has been more than $1,000, 900, and the
decrease is found in every township.
But this is not exceptional. The
decrease in Warren County is So, 275, 900;
in Butler, 50, 100000; Franklin, 81, 1OO,-
600; Crawford, $196,OOO; Delaware, $2,-
$50, 900; Knox, $1,000, OC0; Morrow, $2,-
207, 900; Hancock, Notwithstanding It's
oil and gas and the wonderful growth of
the city of Findlay, $1,000; Richland,
~, 041, ,000 Such reports as these are
coming to US from every direction. The
cold, hard, cruel fact is, that the farms
of Ohio are worth less and the farmers
Of Ohio are poorer than they
were ten years ago by about
one hundred and fifty million
dollars! They have wasted, and worse
than wasted, so far as any increase of
is concerned ten long, weary
years Of life, and of toll, and of trouble.
Our tariff taxes have excited retail
atory legislation in France Germany,
Austria and Italy, which has absolutely
deprived us of market for our pork and
ard throughout about half of Europe.
1t has closed the markets of nearly half
'he civilized world against one of our
most important products Retaliatory
legislation has restricted and lessened
'ur exports of agricultural products to
canada. Our high tariff has not only
not opened to us market for our pro-
luce, but it has driven as out of the best
markets of the world. 1t has made it
necessary for farmers to sell their
products for far less, and has compelled