Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-04-16
Facts for the People to Consider.

as well as 1Or matG6rS OIL creator I'LL
portance. We might comfne the address
to farmers alone, but whilst it concerns
them primarily, we can In truth add that it
is of like importance to all business pur-
suits.
| The agricultural interest of our country,
upon which its real prosperity, first and last,
is and must be established has been assign
ed to rear position in our economy. That
interest sustains not only its owp, but every
other progress is built upon land burdens,
directly and indirectly, are assigned as its
legitimate share of the common responsible
ity, in the destiny of the country.
High protective tariffs have been forced
upon the country under the belief that they
secured the fullest values for soil produc-
ton. delusion which experience has de-
monstrated to be false. Three weeks ago,
we furnished a brief synopsis of the incom
parable speech Of Senator Voorhees,, of In
diana, delivered in the U. s. Senate on the
10Th of March, thoroughly ventilating that
assumption, and causing a sensation among
Republican Senators from the Western
| States, all of which are agricultural, from
which they have not recovered. The farm
ers of those States,- who have in former
years supported the doctrines Of the Repub-
lican party, are realizing the facts as pre-
sented by President Cleveland in his last
annual message to Congress, and by the
distinguished Democratic Senator from In-
diana, and others of like faith, who are de-
termined to present, if possible, the disas-
trous policy which has led to the deplorably
depressed condition Of Our agriculture.
Monopolies grow rich and fatten upon the
policy of restricted commerce, and wage
earners become poorer because the soilpro
ducing interests, along with their OVID, is
denied freer intercourse with foreign coun'
tries, but the scales are falling from the
eyes of both classes and they are begin-
ming to see, as the farmers of Kansas,
who have expressed their condemnation OF
the long service of Mr.. Ingalls, from that
State in the Senate of the United States as
destitute of redeeming feature in behalf
of their tax-ridGen and depressed pursuits.
Not only in his place in the United States
Senate but before the people Senator Vest
of Missouri is at this time discussing these
questions, He writes communication IN
| BrddstreetS from his seat in the Senate, OF
date the Goth of March, from which we
make the following extracts. After adver-
tug to the condition of agricultural inter
ests in his own State, which is similar 10
almost all the others, he proceeds
agriculture is by far the most important
| factor in the creation OF national wealth, ana
| to decrease its area in order to bring about an
equilibrium in the body polite is like ampu-
tating an arm or leg to diminish the product
i've power of the human body.
| One cause, beyond question, of the present
conditions is the fact that We have abnormally
and unnaturally stimulated manufactures at
the expense of agriculture and commerce The
high tariff made to exclude all foreign articles
which compete with like domestic products,
has depressed agriculture, injured commerce,
and virtually destroyed the principal agency
| of commerce, our foreign carrying trade.
| It has affected commerce injuriousiy by pre-
| venting an exchange OF com modities with for
| eign countries. 1t has destroyed the foreign
carrying trade in Arneric n ships by prohibit
| ing our merchants from buying ships where
| they could be bought cheapest and sailing
| them under our flag, while at the same time
taxing the imported materials used in ship
| building. The principle OF our navigation laws
is identical with that OF the high tariff. Both
ara based upon the narrow and absurd idea OF
| isolation and exclusion.
| Agriculture suffers from the tariff by reason
| of the fact that three fourths of our exports
consist of agricultural products. and any sys
TEN which diminishes imports necessarily has
| the same effect upon exports Every country
must pay for its imports with Its exports, and
as imports are diminished the tendency to deN
| creased exports is inevitable. No part of our
people are so much interested in exports as
| farmers, for they furnish three-fourths of the
| exported products; yet they are told that sys
TEN which discoUrages commercial intercourse
with foreign countries, and is based upon the
| idea Of excluding the imports which pay for
the farmers surplus production. Is his best
| friend.
Beside this the direct effect OF the tariff ID to
lessen the results of the farmer's labor to him
and his family. We have it from very high au-
thority that 1.-THE American people want mar
true at this time as to the farmer Let us then
accompany an agricultural gentleman, Mr.
Jones for instance, with 5000 bushels of his
wheat to the Liverpool market. He reaches
there safely and is told that he can have Eng
lish cloth fer his wheat, but that reciprocity is
the life OF trade, and the Englishman has cloth
but no money. Mr.. Jones is compelled to take
cloth. and when he reaches New York on his
return he Is taxed On each yard of cloth the
equivalent of one bushel of wheat in order en-
ter his own country. Does this illustration
lose any of It's force because Mr.. Jones does
not take his wheat to the English market HIM
SELF but sells 1t in Missouri to be carried to the
same market by the purchaser? Does not his
wheat at last purchase in the foreign market SO
much of the products OF that market, and .whe-
ther carried there by the farmer or some one
else, is not its value discounted by reason of
the import tag imposed upon the proceeds of
his production when brought into the United
States?
Suppose, however, that Mr. Jones sells his
wheat for cash and brings it back to this coun-
try. When he purchases here from the Amer
lean manufacturer the cloth he could have
bought in England, be finds the price enhanc-
ed by the tariff duty, SO that he is forced to pay
an amount just below the foreign cosJwith the
import tax eGded.
It is said that farm products are also depress-
ed in Great Britain, and that the tariff cannot
therefore be The cause OF this depression in the
Uu1ted States. The friends of the high tariff
hold the Affirmative, ana they have persistent
ly declared that tariff laws gave the farmer
home market and increased the return for his
labor. The present condition contradict this
assertion, and justifies the former in demand
ing that the taxation imposed upon him by
system which does not operate as promised
should be decreased.
Another cause of the unfortunate aspect of
the agricultural question is the insufficient
quantity of money now In circulation For
many years the money power has controlled
the finances with the dominant idea always
active of making the circulating medium
smaller in order to increase its purchasing
| power, and thereby adding to Incomes. Silver,
which has been degraded by the same in1u