Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-02-13

III 1oOD, IL dS YOU picIoliof 0hOiN !" az
business prudence in shipping cotton
to England in bale, etc" Why did
YOU force cotton farmers to sell in
Europe seventy-fve per cent. of the
crop, or not sell at all? l don't ask for
a prose poem on the factory and farm,
side by side growing up together.
Nor is 1880 an exceptional year.
If falsehood is more to be despised
in one form than in another it is when
it hides its head under thin cover of
truth; and in the matter of giving
farmers a market for foodstuffs the
thin cover is thus expressed:
From sixty to ninety per cent. of
the grain raised here is consumed
here"
Which is true. But it is the thin
shell covering as complete a deception
as villany could produce, for it by no
means follows that if nine out of ten
bushels raised here are consumed here's
that the " Home Market furnished by
manufacturers consumed it.
Men who are in the habit of think
ing in straight lines will follow this
through carefully.
in 1880 there were engaged in gain
full occupations, 17,3S2,00O persons.
That year we raised 460,O00,000 bushels
of wheat; of this enormous amount,
what quantity did the protectionists
buy of our farmers? In other words,
what was the pretended Home Mar
ket?" | cordially invite any defender
of tariff extortion to question either
the premises or the conclusion which
follows.
OF this 460,0O0,000 bushels of wheat
IQO 600 600 ware sold abroad ANY
" Home Market" about that? 100000
600 bushels were used on the farmers
tables; any Home Market in that?
100000 bushels the farmers used
for seed, and no Home Market" to
thank for it either. The remaining
IjO,OOO,00O bushels were consumed by
the 4,O74,230 persons in the profess
sions, and 100000 traders and trans
porters, and 1887 900 mechanics, min
ers and manufacturers. The persons
engaged in professions and the traders
and transporters number 5,SS4,238, or
seyenty-siX per cent, of the number
engaged in farming; then, as the farm
ers ate 100000 bushels, those two
classes ate seventy-six per cent. as
much, or 100000 bushels, leaving
4,O0OO00 bushels.
No one except cheap protection edi-
tors believes, or attempts to make
others believe that the 100000 bush
els used by the classes professional,
and trade, and transportation-were in
any sense consumed in the Home
Market"
There still remains 100000 bush
els of the 460,000,OO0, not quite one
bushel in eight produced, apl yet no
" Home Market has put in an appear
ance This then is used by the 1887
O0O persons ciaSSed as manufacturers,
miners and mechanics, of this $685. 900
persons, at least One-half the black
smiths, coopers, bakers, butchers, brick
and stone masons, millers, boot and
shoe makers, fishermen and OyStermeD,
painters, yarnisherS, saw mill employees,
printers, photographers, stereotypers,
plasterers, engineers and tiremen, laun-
drymen, are no more a part of the man
ufacturers promised Home Market"
than are the farmers themselves.
Conceding one-half of the remaining
100000 bushels to be used in the
-" Home Market" (and that is more
than the Census Report warrants) then
we have the deluded farmer standing
at the door of the Home Market"
with 330,000,O0O bushels of wheat to
sell, and the manufacturers offering TO
buy 100000 bushel, OF eleven per
cent, of what he promised to buy.
And then on condition that the wheat
be sold at prices ruling in the grain
markets of the world. This is the re-
turn the farmer gets for the A cents
eNtortion on each dollar he spends
with the manufacturer who defrauds
him, the same manufacturer being
backed up in his spoliation by the
army and navy of the Republic.
Nor is this all, as if to add insult to
injury, refusing to buy more than
eleven per cent. of the farmers wheat
he makes his victim criminal
if he buys his necessaries where he
sells his surplus grain, unless forsooth
the farmer pays tribute at the custom
house in nearly half the amount Dit is
more than half under statesman Nc
kinley's Law that he got for his
wheat. Moreover, this tribute is levied
on the farmer, not to supply the gov
eminent with funds for its support;
not much; it is levied on the farmer to
enforce protection, to prevent this mar
Vicious Home Market" which is
making the farmer so rich, from being
invaded, taken away from him by
foreigners.
Contemplate, beyond words to ex-
press, is the claim that manufacturers
either can or intend to furnish the
farmer a market adequate to his needs.
Respectfully, f. NJ. DYER.