Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-25
present duties on wool should be
maintained; that they may get their

American wool cheaper than they
could get 1t under free trade and
cheaper than they could import their
foreign wool without duty.
How long will the Republican
farmers of the West refuse to look
such facts as these squarely in the
face and investigate for themselves
this subject of the wool bunco? DO
the Republican farmers want to be
swindled? Do they wish to be bun
coed? Have they no manhood?
All that any tariff reformer, all that
any free trader asks of any Repub-
lican farmer is simply that he will
for himself Investigate this wool
swindle, and that, for himself Only,
he will decide the question after an
investigation.
Is this asking too much? Are
the Republican farmers of this
country so sunk in political supersti-
ton that when their leaders boldly
proclaim the swindle by which their
votes are obtained, they will contin-
ue,to shut their eyes and refuse to
listen even to those who ask them
simply to investigate for themselves?
To every man who will take up
this subject for himself one fact
must be clearly kept in mind from
the very outset. Protection never
made convert through reason.
The protection theory has never OBJ
tanned any believers through study
or Investigation. 1t has been sprung
upon them as a political dogma, not
as an economic fact. No man be-
lieves IN protection because he has
investigated the subject and found
that protection ,yss right. He be-
lieves in protection because the Ma
tional Republican Convention made
it one of the planks in its platform.
He was told to believe in it and he
did what he was told to do. That
is the only reason why he believes
in it. 1t is political dogma, re-
ceived on faith.
The tariff duty on raw wool i'm
ported into the United States never
added one cent to the total value of
the wool clip, from 1924 to the
present hour. No farmer ever re-
ceived one cent more for all the wool
he ever sold in all his life because
Of any foreign duty. Why should
he? How can any duty OH the fol-
eign product add one cent to the
price that he gets?
Protection is of two kinds; gen
uine and counterfeit. A tariff duty
does not necessarily protect. A
tariff duty may be genuine protec-
ton, it may be counterfeit protec-
ton. A duty of $40 per pound on
foreign cotton would not add one
dollar to the total value of the whole
cotton crop of the United States,for
the reason that 100000 planters
cannot combine and fix the selling
price. A duty Of $40 per pound on
foreign wool would not add one
cent to the total value of all the
wool clip of the United States, for
the same reason-that 100000
sheep owners of the United States
cannot combine to fix the selling
price for wool. The market price
is determined by the competition Of
the American producer. The COM
petition Of 10000 will bring the
price as low as the competition of
1O,0O0,O0O-to the narrowest profit
above the cost.
A duty protects only under tive
conditions first, where all in the
same business can combine and fix
the selling price; second, where the
domestic production is SO small that
the foreign prices, plus duty, make
the market prices and the domestic
production does not affect it.
Under any other circumstances a
duty is levied for counterfeit pro-
lection only, and to humbug the one
in whose favor it is said to be put
on. When the protectionist says