The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-10-26
THE FARM VS.. THE SHOP.

Governor HILL presents the tariff issue
to the workmen in strong and just light
when he says: ''What would become of US
if Europe should retaliate by checking her
imports of breadstuffs, cotton, oil and pro-
visions from the United Statess We sent
abroad last year S742, 100000 worth, of
goods, and three-fourths of them WereI lag
ricultural products. What could recon
pelse the country for the loss of this vast
marketr'
When our foreign trade is analysed, 1t is
found that the pay for these exports is the
amount of goods we import 1t was once
thought by the uniformed and is still be-
lieved by protectionists that we can sell
without buying. 1t was thought that we
could send out goods and bring back gold in
payment, thus draining the gold from other
countries into our own.
ADMINISTRATION of commercial exchange
between nations soou dissipates that super
stition. 1t is found that every coin in
Europe would long since have been brought
to this country, if that continent had paid
in money for the goods we sold there.
Europe pays for our goods by sending us
transaction. The goods we import are the
pay for those we export, and the larger
the amount of each the better it is for this
country. Governor Hill says: 81 wakt
to see the American people busy supplying
the markets of the world with food and
clothing. / want to see American ships
carrying our product over every sea.
want to see the wealth of Europe and
Asia and Canada and South America come
into this country to increase the wages of
every laborer and enrich every citizen"
Every protectionist is invited to ponder
that last sentence. Protectionists are afraid
we shall be flooded with cheap goods but not
drop of this flood of good things will come
into this country eXI ept as payment for
goods sent out of this country. II our farms
and shops produce and sell q surpluss pro-
duct of 800, 600 this year, the flood Of
foreign goods will amount to sec, 900, 000
Ii our surplus product next year Is $780,,
DOC, 900, the goods imported will amount to
$500, eco 600: and so on indefinitely Neither
the export nor the import can be stopped
without stopping both. No country can
continue either to buy with or sell for gold
Such country, even if such condition as
receiving only gold were possible, mi ght as
well not trade at all.
1t is physical impossibility to bring
things into this country except in pay
ment for the goods our labor has pro
duced, unless, indeed, we seal the
/ goods we bring, or unless foreigners
will give them to US. The only way in
which foreigners can deprive our people of
work is by giving US their goods instead of
taking those we have made in exchange for
them.
But the goods we export are produced
chiefly by farmers, and the mill owners are
not in favor of extending the market for
farmers. The farmers bring in manufac-
tures in payment for their crops. They
compete with our mill owners in furnish
ing manufactured goods t, the American
people. The farm completes with the shop;
for the goods received by the farmer in ex-
change for the products of his farm are as
much the creation Of his own labor as
though he had made the goods directly.
Their are the product of his labor, the pay
for his work. If no farm products were
exported, the mill owners would have no
competition, as no goods would be sent
here Hence the mill-owners seek to con-
fine the farmers to the home market.
The question is, therefore, not whether
we shall give employment to our own
workmen, but to which class--farmers or
mill workers. Farmers will supply manu-
featured goods without any taxation of
others. Mill-owners will supply them if
the farmers can be taxed out of the job.
Fifty per cent, of our people depend upon
farming. Not five per cent, of the work
ing population is engaged in the protected
manufactures. One-quarter of our farm
ers must quit farming if the export of
farm products is stopped. This scheme to
force farmers into factories, to place them
on level with the paupers of Europe and
compel them TO work at the same occupa-
ton, to make them relinquish their present
advantage over the poor of Europe, viz,
their cheap and productive farms-this is
the scheme for the degradation of the
American farmer, toward which the Nc
KINLEY bill is long and disastrous step.