The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-01-01

the earnings OF one class OF its citi-
zens and bestows it as a bounty upon
those Of another.
will not stop now to question
whether the industries OF a nation
may or may not become SO adjusted
and equalized that protective tariff
could be made equally advantageous
to all.
1t is enough to know that they are
not SO eqnalized in the United States.
II the farmers and laborers OF this
country are required to contribute
from their earnings to build up lines
Of industry in which they are not
engaged, it is absolutely certain that
those who give must become poorer
thereby, while those who receive will
grow rich from the avails of labor
they do not perform, and it requires
no stretch of the imagination to fore
see that under such II system time
alone is needed to divide these class
es in this the proudest republic on
the globe, as the human family is al
ready divided in the most aristocrat-
ic monarchies Of the oil! world.
1t is infinitely better that the nation
should remain poor with its proper
ty, such as it has, distributed among
all its classes, than become the rich
est on the globe with its wealth con-
centrated in the hands Of few.
No dream Of theorist could con-
ceive of a condition more perfect than
one which would divide and could
main tain, with equal effort on the
part of individuals, an equal distribu-
ton of the nations wealth among all
its citizens.
This is impracticable, but whet can
be said in favor Of system that
strikes the very root of this equality;
that aids by artificial means in pre-
venting the nearest approach to such
equality that the human family is
capable of attaining? Certainly
nothing if men are just.
II this is the result of a protective
tariff the argument is ended.
Let us consider further its effect
upon the farmers of this country.
1t is self-evident proposition that
a tariff levied upon the
products which q nation
produces largely in excess of its
own wants, which it is constantly
sending abroad because its own mar
kets will not take or use them, can
have no possible effect upon the price
of such commodities and hence it fol-
lows that SO long as we are produc-
ing annually hundreds of millions in
value of agricultural products in ex-
cess of our wants, no tariff levied up
on like products can benefit the
farmer.
Legislators may spread such laws
upon the statute books, but they
should be as powerless to deceive as
as they are to benefit the parties in
whose favor theyare professedly
made.
1t is equally apparent, as has been
demonstrated SO many times. that a
tariff upon manufactured goods in
creases their cost and the cost of like
goods produced at home, because of
such goods we produce less than we
use, and hence must supply orr wants
in part by importations from other
countries.
But this increased cost is not the
farmers chief ground of complaint
against protective tariff. He must
have a market for his surplus pro-
auctions in foreign lands. Unlike
the manufactured he produces largely
more than the home market will take.
The most important question, there
fore. for him to consider is how to ex-
tend the market for his products.
Nothing is more plain than the fact
that if We sell to foreign nations We
must buy of them. No nation could
long pay in gold for any considerable
amount Of imports. and escape bank
ruptcy. 1t follows irresistibly that a
tariff that keeps the products of any
foreign nation out of our markets
must to considerable extent keep
ours out of its market, and inasmuch
as the farmers of the country supply
three-fourths Of all our exports they
are the chief sufferers from any poll
cy that accomplishes such result.
have spoken of the condition of
industries in my own
state. have called attention to the |
fact that for years these indus
tries have been prosecuted at a loss
instead of profit, and ! affirm with
out fear OF contradiction that there is
no state in this Union where the
great staples of agriculture, the pro-
auctions that supply necessary food
for man and beast, can be more
cheaply produced.
| want to say to the business men
OF this nation, and to politicians as
well. that some plan must be devised
to get this industry on different ba-
sis or this nation must prepare for
storm, the consequences of which
in both a political and economic
sense-no man can measure.
want to say further that the men
engaged in this industry are not GO
ing to wait for home market to
grow up around them that is large
enough to consume the enormous
surplus they annually produce. 1t is
'elief for themselves and not for
unborn that they de-
nand.
Agriculturists are not the enemies
It manufacturing industries: they APP
'reciate as fully as any class that
heir own prosperity as well as that
# the nation depends upon sue
Earl -