The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-04-23
CHIEF OF THE BUNKu sTEERERs.
Z. Y. Wilson In N. Y. World.

| H. r. NllbOu III NJ T. NOIlus
Protection is bunco. 1t is exclu-
| sively buDco of the farmer. He IL
"steered" by its advocates to vote in
favor of protecting them in the robbery
of Others, when he Is the one from whom
they steal the most.
Each Protection bunco-steerer has
his own individual and special game
but the effect of each game is to rob the
/ farmer after throwing dust in his eyes
William Mckinley is the best known
of the Protection bunco-steerers. His
| special game is to persuade the farmer
to abandon his foreign exchange mar
ket and keep only his home market. II
the farmer will permit Congress to pass
a law forbidding him to exchange his
farm surplus for foreign mill goods
Mr.. Mckinley promises that the Amer
ican mill owner will make the same
goods here and the mill owners EN-.
ployes will eat up the surplus saving
the farmer the expense of the exchange
AS what the farmer gets from abroad
in exchange for his surplus is all farm
wages, and the mill machines cannot
eat, only the few imported machine
tenders (whose wages are less than one.
fifth the value) can eat his surplus.
The American workman in protected
mill eats no Tlore than one in an unpro-
tected mill.
But the forms of the bunco are end
less, and each Republican statesman
has his own special steer. When the
farmer has brains enough to see through
them, then the bunco steerer springs
Projections green-goods game. The
farmer always bites at that and invar.
iably gets bitten himself. "Well, yes"
they say, with winning frankness.
Protection is a skin game The mill
owners want it to rob their customers
If you want 1t to rob your customers,
you shall have it, provided you will
Protect the mill.owners in their steal
ing. Here it is" But they deliver to
him only sawdust, not genuine Pro.
lection, and the fun of It is that the
farmer is the only man they are rob-
bing. While he is engaged in Protect
ing them from arrest for robbing the
wage Garner, they are stealing his fOrign
exchange market.
These men are not misguided; that as
sumes they are fools. These men are
not deluded; that assumes they are
idiots. The are hard-hearted, clear
bTained politicians, and that means
they are common swindlers, common
buncO steerers, whose proper place is
cell in prison. They are hired with a
portion of the plunder that comes to
the mill.owners to bunco the farmer,
and whether their portion of the rob-
berry is contributed to pay their
election expenses or passes directly into
their pockets does not matter in the
slightest. Even If they believe the peo-
pie to be fools, and shake British flag
in their faces, yelling "Home market"
and protection to the corn crop" how
much better does that make them?
If to deprive the American people of
their birthright to vast area of farm
ing land and TO give it to six corpora
tions is not robbery, what is it? If to
take from the American farmer his
foreign payment for surplus farm labor
is not theft, what is it? If to tell him
that mill machines will eat his surplus,
that products of foreign labor are
dumped upon our markets, that our
South American trade drains us of gold,
that the foreigner pays the taxes levied
by Congress on our exchanges OF farm
products, that the more of our
wealth we export and the less wealth OF
others we import the richer we are,
ludJ Ils ilhol SUI p'uo anu Iilo LIlu
owners deficiency may equally be Pro
tected by tax and without comhina-
ton to fix the selling price-if this is
not wilful, deliberate lying, what is it ?
Give me and | will use softer words,
smoother phrases, to describe that
which confeTs upon II 500 owners of
mill machinery the right to drive 2,OOO,-
600 American farmers from the land
they till; which has already deprived L.
100000 of them of the ownership OfI
their farms; which cOmpels every
American citizen to pay them the same
tribute as he would if they were already
our crowned Caesars.