Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1890-06-28
A LETTER TO MERCHANTS.

A LETTER TO MERCHANTS.
Franklin Macveagb, One Of Chcago's Prom
inent Wholesale Grooers, Explains Why
Country rs Well as City Merchants should
LabIr For Tariff Reform.
The following letter from Franklin
MacVeagh, for twenty-five years one OF
the leading wholesale grocers Of Chica-
go, will be read with interest by mer-
chants throughout the West, inasmuch
as he has never been in politics, never
held an Office and never was a candidate
for one, but discusses the tariff question
from the standpoint of business man:
The time has at last come when the West
ern Observation-Disclosures a wholesale mer-
chant or retail merchant-is pecuniarly
Involved in the tariff question. Until now
he has felt no pecuniary interest in 1t; but
henceforth he must recognize himself as an
important sufferer tSom the burdens OF tho
tariff and as one of the victims OF its oppres-
| sions.
He has considered himself an outsider He
has thought that he could afford to take any
view of tirif reform that suited his fancy,
and to subordinate this view, II he pleased,
to any other polite | fancy and especially
to his partisan prejudices. He has felt at
full liberty to prefer political associations
to the exclusion OF tariff reform notions;
and If he chose to go back and rake up the
issues Of the civil war and rest his vote
upon these, and to be perfectly Indifferent
| to the cruel exactlons of our excessive
1 tariff All this he felt that he could afford
to do, notwithstanding many other pockets
were involved. But the inevitable has over.
taken him. The hour Is at hand when he
must rank himself with the farmer and tho
workingman, making third in q trio of
| tribute bear rs
That he has had little suspicion Of this is
but a part OF that public blindness which
has so long delayed the emancipation Of the
people. High protection has itself been
protected by this blindness of the people
while tariff reform has been handicapped by
it from the start. 1t has grown up because
the burdens of the protective system are in
direct and disguised, and therefore, IL the
country is rapidly developing and univers.
ally prosperous, pass unfet, and conse-
| quently presented. Only those who study
political questions apart from personal con
siderat1ons, see burdens that are not per-
sonally felt. Meanwhile the protected
classes receive directly and constantly the
benefits which correspond with these bur-
dens, and have accordingly lively sense Of
pecunary interests to defend These in.
terests they have defended persistently and
energetically. The defense has been or.
ganlzed, powerful and sleepless, as becomes
the defense Of pecuniary privileges so great
and so vlvdly realized.
This until now has made the contest be-
tween high protection and tariff reform an
unequal one
The situation is, however, rapidly chang.
ing. The burdened classes are beginning to
realize their burdens. The tribute payers
are beginning to feel the payment of their
tributes. They will sooner or later feel also
the personal humiliation OF tr butte paying
The laboring men are getting their attention
fixed upon the sums they are paying for
somebody elses protection, and are already
| being counted for t r # reform. The farm
crs, too, at last are being forced to see that
their prosperity is diminishing, and conse
quently are beginning to ask why. When
they shall ask why with the earnestness
which Is fast growing out Of their diminish.
ing prosperity, and perceive, as they surely
WILL that ut one reply is possib e, farewell
to the privileges of our protected classes.
| The protected classes will no To- ger have
mere quiet reformers to deal with thea, but
an aroused force, about which they can
| proftably ask tn railroads uf the West.
They will be sorry then that they did not
listen to the mild protests of the dsinterest.
ed period, since, ins ca of political per.
suasion, they will have to face political
force, and, p rhaps, political fury.
! For to take the place of the disinterested
| per cd when tar # reform Is urged upon
purely scientific grounds. there is coming in
an Interested period when oppressed com.
munities will hCtly contend for their rights
| The battle is to be between two par les, both
pecuniarily llterested. The advantage will
/ be with the greater number, and the pro.
! tected classes are the few.
! As result of the new Ii uht that ia brpak.
/ ing on the victims Of high and higher pro.
| lection, | believe an awakening of the
wholesale merchants and retail merchants
/ is at hand. Z
/ The merchants have 80 pay the regu ar
bounties on all they individually consume
| like the ether consumers; and as they are
| not all superiiuously rich great many Of
/ them VIII get tired of doing this, as every
/ body else is getting tired But this is not
where their shoe will really pinch. The Sc
rious trouble at hand for the Western mcr.
chant lies in the diminishing ability of the
| farmer TO buy the merchants wares. The
/ farmer is the chief customer of the mer.
chant; and tie prosperity of the merchant
Is bound up with the prosperity of the farm.
er. When the farmers surplus is cut down
his buying power goes with it.
| Now, the farmers profits have been di.
minshing for some time, and they have at
] ios' iNh'htt thc ppiht WH'Tt III average
| communities he is running behind. He has
but one thing to do, and that is to reduce his
scale of living This result has long been
| inevitable. The farmers prices have been
| going down because he has to meet the com
| petition of the world, and can not possibly
avoid doing so while on the other hand he
must buy of our protected classes or at their
dlctation, and pay immensely more for all he
consumes than he would pay IL the Govern.
] a t...l l.g u. 4.
the competition of the world
As long as the farmers were making
money freely 1t did not matter to the mer.
chants, nor for some time after, because the
farmers at first took to iunning into debt
and mortgaging their farms, or TO moving
! further West thinking tha the bad weather
would pass over, as Ia shown by the aban.
| Goned fa ms of the East and the Increased
farm mortgages Of the West. But that could
! not go on. forever, and the tirlr Is now upou
us when the farmer Is compelled to reduce
his expenses and his scale of living. He
must cut his coat according to his cloth
This would be very unfortunate for our civ.
ilization and would seriously tell upon it. II
1t should last. But it is Immediately unfor
tanate for the Western merchants. whole.
sale and retail, all of whom depend either
directly or indirectly upon the Purchasing
power of the farmer
Therefore : y that the merchant has be.
come an interested party in the tariff ques.
tion, and must take his part in the move.
ment for ref rm He must give his time
and money to reform, as the prntcc ed
class 3 give the irs to resist reform, Il he
has certainly and somewhat suddenly ba.
come party to the fight. Very truly
FRANKLIN MACVEAGH
We bought last year from New Zea
land sl,6is,5s0 worth Of goods. OF this
sum kaur pum furnished q O27 oas.