The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-06-10
THE FARMERS MARKET.

he Wants 1t at Home, Not Thousands Of
Miles Away-GrOwth of Agriculture In
this Countrywide Factory and Farm
Should be Side by Side.
AS showing the condition of agricul-
ture under the revenue tariff policy
prior to 1924, beg to read you, said
Major Mckinley at the Tariff League |
banquet, an extract from speech made |
Ry Thomas Ewing, senator from Ohio,
tp 1882, in defense of the system of pro-
lection:
in short, every portion of the world |
was searched by our intelligent mer-
chants, and all combined did not furnish |
market adequate to our surplus pro-
auctions.
Every farmer in Ohio long knew and
felt the pressure consequent on this
state of things. Year after year their
stacks of wheat stood unthreshed,
scarcely worth the manual labor of
separating the grain from the straw.
So low was it reduced in comparison
with manufactured articles that have
known forty bushels of wheat given for
pair of boots. Such was the state of
things il the western country prior to
and at the time of the revision of the
tariff of 1924"
This indicates the condition of the
farmer under the low tariff period prior
to 1924, and makes clear the motive and
action of the agricultural states in
favoring the protective tariff of that
year Forty bushels of wheat for a pair
of boots under the revenue tariff policy
now advocated by the democratic party
in the so-called interest of the farmers
Forty bushels of wheat to-day after
thirty years of protection and seven
months after the passage of the tariff of
1890 will buy not pair of boots alone,
but an entire suit of clothes and hat in
addition, and with overalls and rubber
boots The home market created by
increased manufactures encouraged by
protective tariff has changed the con-
dition of the agriculturists of the coun-
try to their advantage and profit.
The system has given to farmers of
this country, whether they grow cotton
or corn, wheat or wool, the best domes-
tic market anywhere offered, has given
to our people a diversity Of employ
ments, to our industries wider range, to
our labor better wages, than can be
found anywhere else. It has accorded
to genius, skill and invention encour-
agement, and to the whole country a
marvellous development in all that goes
to make nation rich and strong, pro-
gressive and prosperous.
To-day, aside from the men who la
Dor in shop or mine, no class of our
citizens are so deeply interested in the
maintenance of a protective system as
the farmers. They sell 90 per cent of
all their products at home, and every
mile of transportation saved is money
made. There is no portion of our peo-
pie except labor which would be so seri-
ously affected in income and profits
from the policy of free trade as the far
mers of the United States The recent
census shows the remarkable growth OF
agriculture in the last ten years under
protection. In one department of agri-
culture, that of truck farming, the prog
ress is almost phenomenal. Upward of
$l00,0OO,0O0 are invested in this indus
try, the annual products reaching a
value of S76,517, 155 on the farms after
paying freights and commissions, real
lied upon 5S4, $40 acres of land. There are
employed in this industry 216, 765 men,
1884 women and 14,S74 children, aided
by 1857 horses and mules and $S,971, :.
206.70 worth of implements. This vast
industry could not be possible except
with home market. The products are
perishable; they would not stand long
shipments; they must be consumed
when ripe, and are of no value except
to home consumers l cannot imagine
anything which would be so disastrous
to the farmer as the surrender of the
home for the foreign market. The
value OF every farm is increased with
nearness to manufacturing centers.
Two considerations, if there were nc
others, justify the protective tariff. One
is wages, and the other home market
wages for American labor and con
sumers for American farmers. You can
not retain the rate of wages paid in this
country without a protective tariff, anC
you cannot have consumers which are
valuable to the farmer with low wages
and uncertain and unremunerative EN-
ployment for labor. fyou made YOU
tariff unmindful Of the wages of la Dor
made it tariff purely for revenue ant
forced the wages down to the level o.
the European standard, you would have
diminished the purchasing capacity Of
that great body of consumers, and the
value of the farm and it's products W oulG
diminish in equal if not greater proper
ton than you diminished the wages Of
labor.
The manufacturer can get on without
protection good deal better than the
farmer and the wage Garner. If he i.
driven to free and open competition
with the world outside he must either
close his shop or bring his wages dowr
to the level of his foreign competitors
There is no escape from one of thes,
two results. To do either would be in
furious, not only to the workman, bu
to the farmer and the country gener
ally. If the manufacturer was driver
to shut up his shop the workmen woul,
be driven to the soil, and when Their
would become competitors of the far
mer rather than his consumers, as the,
are to-day. If it was scaling down O
wages the injury would fall upon tn
laborer and agr'culturist and not upo
the manufacturer. When the manu-
tacturer is forced to reduce the cost q