Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-01-10
The Farmer and the Home Market.
Iobp @ Carlisle in the January Forum,

The American farmer, although he
cultiYates the most fertile soil in the
world, and ought to be the most pros
porous member of the community, Is
constantly engaged in a hard struggle
TO secure a comfortable support for his
family and a moderate education foI
his children, and to pay his taxes and
keep out of debt This is all he can
reasonably hope to accomplish; in a
large majority Of cases he fails even
TO do this, and sooner or later is com
PEELED to sell or mortgage his land and
reduce his expenditures to the lowest
possible figure. He has a paternal
government which has determined
that certain classes Of industry ought
to be maintained at the public eX-
pcnse, and for thirty years he has been
taxed for their support; and now after
these favored Industries have become
rich and powerful, they combine and
confederate under the names of trusts
syndicatcs and pools, and dictate the
terms upon which the people may pro
cure the nccessaries of life and carry
on their business.
Under our system of taxation, the
farmer is almost without the sem
blance of power to protect his own
interests. He cannot control the
prices of the products he sells in
the markets of his own country, be
cause the demand is not equal to the
supply, and he must take what he can
get; and he cannot control the prices
of the articles he buys here, but must
pay whatever is asked, because they
are protected by tariff laws against the
competition of everybody who wants
to sell them lower. Nor can he control
the prices Of his products in the mar
keLs abroad, where he sells what his
home market will not take, because
there he is compelled to compete, un-
der many disadvantages, with similar
products from all parts of the world.
If he attempts to escape eXtorton at
home by purchasing what he wants in
the cheap markets abroad, where he
sells his surplus, his own government
arrests him at the custom house and
fines him from 30 to 100 per cent.
upon the value of his goods; and this
he must pay before he is allowen to
sell or even to use the articles he has
bought with the proceeds of his own
labor, And what makes the matter
worse, is the fact that the government
does not need this fine, but imposes it
upon the importer and the importers
customers because they are supposed
to be competing with some individual
or corporation engaged III making the
same kind Of goods in this country.
The manufacturers can foresee with
almost absolute certainty what the
quantity Of their product will be upon
the employment of any given number
hands, and therefore they can combine
whenever they choose to limit pro
duction and increase prices; but the
farmers crop depends almost entirely
upon the character of the season he
may have, and he cannot decide in ad-
vance how much he must plant in
order to furnish supply that will not
Ice in excess of the demand. He
must SOW and reap all he can every
year, and take the risk of reducing the
prices Of his own products by over
stocking the markets at home and
abroad. When the seed is sown it
must remain until the crop is gath
cred, and consequently the farmers
investment yields but one return each
year. But the output of the manu-
faCturer is the result of daily pro
cess; and if he finds that prices are
falling by reason Of overproduction, or
for any other reason, he can diminish
or suspend his expenditures until the
market improves.
Notwithstanding these and many
other disadvantages under which the
farmer lahors. and which no act of
congress can remove, Senator Cullom
thinks protection has been more bene-
chcial to him than to any one else; and
he refers to the great improvement
in the material welfare of the farming
and country people" during the last
thirty or forty years to justify his
opinion. All this comfort and gen
eral Improvement he attributes to
protection. Because the farmers, who
own all the cultivated land on a great
continent, and who had in 1880
$12, 500 100000 invested in farms, ag-
ricultural implements, and live stock,
did not retrograde or stand still during
period Of thirty or forty years, when
the whole civilized world was progress
ing in wealth and material comfort at
rate never witnessed before, the Sen
ator concludes that the fact is due
solely to a policy which compelled
them to pay out of their own earnings
many millions of dollars every year
to establish and maintain other indus
tries. Ii would be far more reasonable
to conclude that if they had been ex-
empt from this heavy taxation and
permitted TO expend their money for
the improvement of their own proper
ty, and the education of their children,
there would be fewer mortgages upon
their land, and a greater degree of
comfort and prosperity among the
farmers and country people.
The meeting of the democratic state
central committee is called for Ian. Is.