St. Paul daily globe., 1890-04-23
He Informs the Overtaxed
Farmers That They Need
More Protection.
Their Lack of Business Ca
pacity Accounts for Their
Poverty.
High Tariff Is a Panacea for
All the Ills Of Agri-
culturists.
President Harrison Now Has
the Worlds Fair Bill in
Hand.

WASHINGTON, April 22.-Secretary
Rusk, in reply to hundreds of commu-
nications from different sections of the
country, appealing to him for an express
sion of opinion respecting the present
condition of agricultural depression,
its causes and remedies, has issued a
long address to the farmers of the cOun-
try. The present agricultural depression.
universally admitted, and of which
there can be no doubt, the secretary says
can be traced tOa combination of causes
-somany that probably no one can ell
umerate them all. Those causes which
to the secretary seem more directly re-
spOnsible for this severe depression
may be divided into two classes; those
inherent to farmers themselves, and for
which they alone can provide possible
remedy, and those over which the
farmer himself has no direct control
and the remedy for which must be pro.
vided by law. In the first class of
tion of the productive power of land to
a variety of causes-to careless culture.
want of busineSSlike methods, lack of
study of supply and demand and mar
ket prices, and. the ownership of more
land by many than they can properly
care for. After alluding briefly to
the discouraging effects of farm
mortgages, the difficulties of the trans
portatl0n question, gambling in farm
products, controlling combinations, and
the depressing effect of middlemen on
the results of the farmers honest toll.
Secretary Rusk advances an argu-
ment in
Favor Of Higher Duties
on agricultural products. One of the
gravest causes for the present agri-
cultural depression, in the opinion of
the secretary, IS lack of protection for
the farmer. Few people. he SAYS, re-
aliZe that our imports of agricultural
products, estimated at prices paid by
the consumer, are about equal to our
agricultural exports estimated as prices
paid to the farmer, yet such is the case.
Our imports of products sold in cOmpe
petition with those actually pro-
duced on our own soil amount
to nearly s115,O00,00O annually. and
as much more could be produced on our
own soil under favorable conditions.
Our imports of agricultural products
TOR the fiscal year ended June 80, 1889,
aggregated S266, 600, 900, the greater part
of which, perhaps S255.000,00O, could,
the secretary thinks, with proper en-
cOuragement, be produced on our own
soil. 10 protection the secretary looks
for remedy. zone glance" he says.
''at the comparative rates of duty levied
upon agricultural as compared with
other products, ,one glance at the free list
the greater portion of which consists OF
agricultural products, either grown or
I'M nIxrJD
soil. and comparison of these figures
with the average rate of duty levied
upon manufactured articles, ought to
be sufficient to silence forever all oppo-
Sition to the demand l have
made on behalf of the Amer
fcan farmer in my annual report,
namely, that by a wise application
of our admirable protective system,
all the benefits Of our home market be
secured to him for everything he may
be able to produce" Our system Of tax
alton. the secretary thinks. demands
improvement in certain directions. The
cost of supporting the. government
needs to be more equitably adjusted
among the different classes of our peO-
ple.- AT present in many states the bur-
den of local taxation presses heavily
upon farm property, its very nature
rendering it easily assessable. Every
corporation created by the state. and to
whom special privileges are granted,
either by state, county or incorporated
village or city, should be taxed in pro-
portion to its business. And i'll all ways
the principle of taxation should be to
place the burden of maintaining the gov
ernment, whether state, municipal or
national, upon the Injuries and COM
forts which the wealthy enjoy. and to
reduce to a minimum in its application
to the hardly earned property of the
property of the poor man.