The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1891-03-20
FARMER, LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE


window glass : i,tos,7es,oi i,5$s,ss,sa
61SssGS bFsss Goods ssasSS s5ss ssiSpisa G1S5ss
The first column shows the worlds
market price on manufactured pro-
ducts, and the latter is the tax that
Americans are obliged to pay, not
only on the imported goods, but also
to the American manufacturer in the
home market. The American manu-
facturer does not undersell the import
ed products including the duty, other
wise protection would be prohibitory
and consequently importation would
not be possible. The American con-
sumer therefore pays just about two
prices for all products on which duty
is imposed. The American manu-
facturer therefore has the whole bene-
fit of tariff protection, as only that
part reaches the United States Treas
ury which is collected at the custom
houses on importation of foreign pro-
ducts. For thirty years the farmer
plodded along in the hope Of the re-
alization of the oft repeated promise
of a wider and better mar rket for his
products through the fascinating in
ducements Of the deludlng and rotten
policy of protection, until at last he
finds himself in the very jaws of bank
ruptcy, while the protected classes re-
vel in corpulency, excess Of wealth and
prodigality. Through the mists of his
Unfortunate circumstances he discovers
the further abomination in the effort
of the lawmaking power, not only
of multiplying official positions
with high salaries, but raising those
already long standing, and in other
innumerable ways increase the public
expense and thereby, still further crush
the already PROSTATE farmer. Through
the honeyed claptrap phrases of vile
deception the protectionists still hope
to goad the farmer to further submls-
sion of greater robberies through the
Mckinley bill by establishing a few
more shirt factories in which some Of
the farmers daughters will be enabled
to earn their board, and thereby en-
large the home market for farm pro-
ducts. The farmers surplus must
either be consumed by veimin or find
a foreign market, and in either case
he can only realize the worlds market
price whether sold in the home or
foreign market. The American farm
er is more poorly compensated than
his foreign competitor by reason Of
protection to American industries
which is claimed to be protection
against foreign pauper labor, and by
reason of protected manufactured
goods for which the American farmer
pays nearly twice as much as the fore
ign farmer. The foreign farmer can
produce for the worlds market much
more cheaply than the American
farmer, for which the foreign farmer
receives as much as the American
farmer. If this proposition is false the
whole protection theory is false, as the
protectionists assert that foreigners
can produce so much more cheaply
than Americans. Ifit is true in manu-
featuring, it is true in farming. Under
such a condition it is impossible for
the American farmer to compete with
his foreign competitor. The Ameri
can farmer is sacrificed through the
rotten protection and will inevitably
become reduced TO surfdom and
eventually to pauperism if a RADICAL
change is not speedily forthcoming.
If the home market for farm pro-
ducts were advanced above the worlds
market by reason of protection to the
same extent that American manufact-
ured products are, the American farm
er might we'll laugh and rejoice in pro-
lection.
Inc annua! exports farm pro-
ducts are measured by scores of mil
lions, both as to quantity and value,
and the farmer does not sell for one
cent less for export than he sells in
the home market. The American
farmer is robbed by his American
competitor-the manufacturer in the
home market TO the extent that the
protection mantle covers the difference
between the cost of protection of
manufactured products and the duty
imposed thereon upon the same class
es of imported foreign products. The
financial condition of the American
farmer as compared with the Amerl-
can manufacturers presents a contrast
of universal adversely on the one
hand and unequaled and unparalleled
prosperity on the other. The Amerl-
can farmer is not only obliged to sell
in the unprotected market of the
world, but is almost exclusively res
stricted to the home market by reason
of protection. Farm products are ex-
changed in the foreign markets for
foreign products, bullion or otherwise,
hence protection obstructs farm pro-
duct exports to the extent it prohibits
imports by reason of high duties, all Of
which has tendency to increase the
| farmers surnlus So long as there re-