Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-05-07
THE KANSAS FARMER
As BE is Affected by Protection.


By ALMERIN GILLKTr. OF EMPoRIA
No industry in the west but pays
tribute to the east. With these profits
thus unconsciOnably and persistently
wrung from the labor of the agricultur-
ist. they have loaned the money which
is now represented here in the farm
mortgage. They have furnished the
money to build the great railroad sys-
TENS of the country; and have placed
in vassalage to the east the entire COM
merce of this great country by controil-
ing it's transportation. And We find
these protected industries enveloped in
purple and fine linen, and rolling in
wealth, and the agricultural unpro-
tected industries groaning under the
load of debt and hard times-and this
is called national prosperity.
The name of the magic wand, at
whose touch all this brilliant transfer
nation has been wrought is protection.
But we are told that protection keeps
the money in the country: that by
building up other and diversified indus
tries it enables the farmer to realize for
hSs product a higher price than he 9TH
erwise could; that if protection were
withdrawn from these protected indus
tries. foreign competition would close
them up and the operators would be
turned loose into the field of agriculture,
and by still greater production of agri-
cultural staples still further depress the
markets. Many other bugbesrs are
suggested as reasons why protection
should be retained, but they are all as
fallacious as the three which will try
to answer. In the first claim that pro-
there is not necessarily single grain
of truth. It is hazy catch-penny
statement which will not for a moment
stand the test of analysis. Take, for
illustration, the SO suit Of ready-made
wool clothing for which the farmer pays
at home the protected price of $l9.463.
1t can be sold for the unprotected
price of $40. If the farmer buys this
$9, ,46s in his pocket instead OF its being
in the pocket of the protected manu-
facturers? But you say, the ten dollars
at least goes abroad-goes out of the
country. Well, let us see. This as
sumes that if protection be withdrawn,
home manufacturing will cease, the
factories be abandoned, and the entire
home market given up to foreigners,
and all these operatives will go to farm
ing. But what right has any one to
presume that such will be the result?
Is it not more reasonable and more
probable that the home manufacturer
with his factory and machinery and
stock and trade and knowledge of that
business, and his villages OF operatives
and artisans who know nothing else
will continue to manufacture these
suits for ten dollars, if protection is
taken away, just as the far mer has con.
tinued all these years to produce, with
out protection, in the face Of European
competition? Is it not more likely that
profits and his employees less wages
and the ten dollars will be accepted
in full of the demand, by the manufac-
turer and his employees and the other
S9.46a stay in the pocket of the farmer?
1t is true that the manufacturer will
not accumulate million dollar
fortune in a few years, and probably
his day laborers will not be able to
own many mortgages on Kansas farms.
But there will then be no unjust dis
elimination against western interests.
So the money remains in the country
the same. But instead of making mil
lionaires of the eastern manufacturer
and his having this great and uncon-
scionable accumulation, this unequal
distribution of wealth, he gets, and his
laborers get, profit proportioned to
t,he profit the farmer receives from his
b, ,siuess, because they are on the same
foo ting as to competition. The farmer
will then be permitted modest profit
upon his labor.
If Or. otection were withdrawn there
is little uore danger that manufactur-
ing here would cease and the operatives
now engag> ed in it go to farming. than
that the fari uers would leave their un'
protected industries and swarm into
the protec ected factories. Neither knows
anything Of the business of the other
and neither is in any danger in any
event of any iLvation of their chosen
field by the other. The farmers have
not left farming although unprotected
and unremunerative. They have
worked along and accepted the meagel
and continually diminishing reward OF
their occupation.
If this unjust discriminating protec-
ttoU be withdrawn, all labor then will
he upon an even footing. The class OF
row protected laborers will be Obliged
to take less, and the unprotected
laborers will receive more as the result
>f 4t,o;. IoborS The facilitV for. 8uC