The Forrest City times., 1891-09-18
A Dead Failure.

RAVsOSsiOu iS tO pTuNiuc v nOu6 III 8Tk0L Q consume the produce of our farms Impose high tariff, say the protection ists, and men will engage in manufac- lures. will give employment to large numbers of laborers, and thus . great home market will be built up to con- sume sll that our farmers can produce It is upon this basis that they go to the farmers to seek support for our high tarfh system, even trying to persuade them that they get greater advantages from it than nybody else.
 This thing has now been going on for thirty years, and it would seem that by this time protection ought to have ac- compished something substantial in tho way of building up it's homo market. Lot us sec what the result so far has been
 By taking wheat as the most impor- tAnt of our farm products, and finding out how much of this years crop will be consumed by the protected classes, we can form an approximately correct estimate of the importance of protec- tion's homo market
 How many people in this country arc subject to foreign competition, end therefore benefited by protection? In answer to this question three eminent specialists in the employ of tho United States Government have made estimates These arc Northington c Ford. Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of tho State Department; Professor simon New comb, Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, Navy Department; and K E. Elliott, the United States Government Actuary.
 These three authorities reached slight m nrAt t,xv tN Lsnrl the number of persons subject to foreign competition Is 4.70 per cent; according to Elliott, 4.75 per cent: and according to Newcomb. 5.20 per cont For our purposes here lot us take per cent, which is little above the average of the three estimates.
 Now the average population of tho country for the fiscal year now passing Is given at about 65,0oo, 900, and tho party dependent on protection by the above estimate is, therefore, 3,250, ,0Oo This ts, then, the dimensions of protec- tion's home market
 Now lot us see how much of our wheat crop this boasted home market will eat this year.
 According to the Agricultural Depart mont At Washington the average per capita consumption of wheat in the United States Is now about X bushela At this rate, our protected classes will consume just l5.266. 900 bushels of our present largo wheat crop At the samo rate the farmers themselves and other unprotected classes of our population will require 2ss. l66, 900 bush ola, an amount which dwarfs into utter tnsiRni6cance tho consumption of the protected classes
 The wheat crop of tho present year has 5cen plsccd by the Agricultural Do partment At 54t, 900, 900 bushels, though como authorities put 1t higher. Besides this, surplus of 90, 900, 900 bushels was brought over from last years crop. The total supply this year will, therefore, Do not less than 579. GOO. GOO bushels.
 The entire home demand for this wheat will be about As follows:
 Nonprosected homo market. ........ .2ss, lss. ooo Protected home market. ..,.......... IS BS oJi
 Total. .sss, 4sa. .oto
 This leaves for export to the foreign market over 2ll, ,Oo0, ,0o0 bushels, or . quantity sufficient to feed, At our own rate Of consumption, . population of <5, ,O0O. 900
 This Is . most astonishing result after shirty years of effort at creating homo market According to these figures our farmers will have to sell thirteen times as much of their wheat abroad as the protected classes of this country will consume
 If protection had carried out It's boast cd scheme of creating home market largo enough to cat all our farmers wheat, 1t would have had to bring hero t5,000. 900 people and put them into some form of protected manufacturing.
 With such figures as these before them our farmers will see what an cnor- nous contract at market building pro tection has taken upon itself Do they believe that 1t will ever finish the job?