Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1890-05-23
OLYMPIA WASHINGTON FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 2S $780,
The Farmer and The Tariff.

ing it so easy at present to deludc the
farmers into the belief that high pro-
tective tariff is a panacea for all the
ills under the sun. One OF then, Con-
gresham Butterworth, with shrewd-
ness many Of his colleagues would do
well to emulate, has noted the sign of
ali awakening to an appreciation of
their real situation on the part of the
farmers, and has had the political
courage to declare that his colleagues
must grant the farmers some of the
consideration which they have hitherto
been showing exclusively to the mono
polists. In as solid Republican State
as Minnesota the farmers have practi-
cally served notice upon the Republican
party that they do not intend to be
fooled any longer, and the same feel
ing is making itself manifest elsewhere,
even in this State. Referring to the
same matter the st. Paul Globe we'll
says:
Congressman Flower struck the
nail squarely ON the head in his dis
cussion of the Mckinley bill when he
said that the overtaxed agriculturists
want something more tangible
than promises. They have been
fed on promises until they have
grown lean, and the worst of it is
the Mckinley bill has more of
the promise chaff in it than any
tariff measure that has yet been
brought before Congress. The injustice
and inequality of the existing system
of taxation of which the farmers
complain is perpetuated in the McKin-
ley bill, and in decidedly more ag-
gravated form than in the present law.
The little sop thrown out to the far
mers i'll the way of duty on farm pro-
ducts is no compensation for the
grievous burthens imposed by the in
creased duties on articles that the far
mer is compelled to buy. AS has been
abundantly demonstrated, farm pro-
ducts need no protection except to be
allowed to seek an unrestricted mar
ket. Foreign agricultural products do
not compete with ours, except in for
eign markets. Therefore, all that
American farmers ask is to be allowed
to get into the foreign markets on al
equality with the agriculturists of
other countries. This cannot be done
as long As they are hampered with tariff
restrictions at home.
alt is not cheap selling market
but q cheap buying market that the
American farmers want, whereas the
effect of the Mckinley bill will be to
cheaper the market for agricultural
products, and to make it higher for
everything else. This is just the trou-
BILE the farmer are having with the
present tariff system, and surely there
is no occasion for them to go from bad
to worse, as they would do in case the
the Mckinley measure should be en-
acted into law.
"The former argument of the pro-
tectiOnists, that it was necessary to
protect American industries against
British competition, has lost its force
in light Of the fact that England capi-
talists now own pretty much all of the
American manufactures. British syn
dicates have bought up nearly all the
manufacturing concerns in this coun-
try that amount to anything, and de-
pending upon a perpetuation of the
Republican tariff fpolicy for a continued
opportunity to fleece the American
agriculturists, they are paying out en-
ormous sums of money in investments
of this kind. As a matter of fact, we
are no longer protecting American in
dustries with our high tariff. We are
protecting British capital in its op-
dortunity to oppress American con-
sumers. That is all there is OF it.
"1f it was wrong, as it certainly was,
to rob the farmer and laboring classes
to enrich American manufacturers, it
is doubly wrong to rob them for the
enrichment OF foreigners. Facts are
stubborn things, and in this instance
they are too stubborn to he bent or
broken by the sophistry of the protec-
tionists, who have no further occasion
to appeal to the sentiment of patriotic
pride ever uppermost in the American
heart in support of the iniquitous pro-
lection system. 1t is no longer Ameri-
cans who are to be beneficiaries, but
English capitalists whose gold is in
vested in American industries"
A MOST diabolical act of cruelty was
prepetrated at Spokane City last week,
in what is known as Poverty Flat"
by a man named William Coulter, who
is noted as q nraver meetinO cropt