The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-05-22


prices which farm products in recent
years have brought. Despite the
great fact staring them i'm the face
that millions of acres have been
brought into cultivation and hundreds
of millions of bushels of staple farm
products added to the supply beyond
what we consume, they make no note
of the law of supply or demand but
lift up a great cry against political
parties. And in the midst of their
cutlery comes a small crop, followed,
as it inevitably must be, by high
prices, showing them most opportuDe-
ly the significance of that great law of
prices.
General Buffers speech is full of
convincing points, and his reply to
Senator PETER is conclusive. He says
The farming class has received more
from this country than any other
class, and if you will reflect you will
see Cat it is so. We not only gave
every one a farm, but we spent mil
lions upon millions untold to build
railroads; to build railroads to every
mans farm to carry to market his
products.
There has been more expended in
behalf of the farmer than i'm behalf of
anything else. Now what was the
result? The result was that we could
keep none of our boys up in New
Hampshire tilliDg the farms. They
wanted to go west where they could
get farms for nothing.
Our farms are deserted. We could
MT compete with the west on those
cheap lands. Our farms cost from Sc
to 500 an acre, while some of the best
lands i'm the world can be bought in
the west for $50 per acre. That end
ed our farming. Nothing else, more
or less. What was the consequence?
1t was that there was an immense
rush into the business of farming, so
that we raised of all the staples OF
farming great deal more than was
used in this country, and We had to
go abroad to find a market for it.
We have about got rid of all our
public lands that are not fit for cul-
iivatiOn. There won't he any more to
be taken up in this way. 1 have told
you and when we get there this thing
stops, and the price of land goes up,
and the farmer stays at home.
Senator PETER has deplored the fact
that the farmers no longer as in "the
good old times" make their own farm
tools. General Butler referred to this
and added:
Oh, but you say they put a tariff on
these tools. Yes, we do. The only
trouble is that we do not put it high
enough: Laughter and applause. |
Because the higher the tariff the more
certainly the eastern manufacturer or
any other manufacturer has on the
market, the more men are rushing to
it, the greater the competition, and
the cheaper they bring it down, the
sooner and the faster; and all our
business is lower now than it was be-
fore the tariff was put upon any arti-
Gle.
Some of you have perhaps heard
that l am a bunting manufacturer.
Laughter. A man had always bet
ter speak about what he knows if he
is going to give any instruction. All
through the war of the rebellion no
bunting was made in this country. 1t
could not be made. 1t was not to be
made. We depended upon Great
Britain. There was 10 tariff on bunt-
ing, except the very ordinary tariff
of that class of goods for another pur-
pose, and we were paying from SIS to
$50, from S25 to S35, for the different
grades of bunting, and no soldier or
saitor fought in the great war under
yard of American bunting.
Well, at the request of the secretary
of the navy. 1 undertook with some of
my young friends up at Lowell to see
if bunting could be made here. 1
found out how tn make it-sent a man
to England to learn laughter and
we started making bunting with
II looms, and there was 40 per cent
tariff put upon the bunting.
Well, what was the effect? The
tariff was so high that in twelve years
there were 1900 looms weaving
bunting in the United States, and the
bunting now has gone down so that
the very best made on earth may be
got for SIS piece instead of SS5. And
80 it did with every article.
hear some people say: "Why,
the tariff is always an addition to the
price," The last 1 knew of cotton
cloth-and am not cotton weaver,
and some one will correct me if I AM
wrong-the tariff was cents a yard
in calico goods or cotton, and / can
buy all the print cloth, or cotton, as
they were called-I was going to say
i'm the world-in this country for 81
cents, as you all know.