The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-10-16
NO WONDER THEY ARE TIRED.

One of our exchanges says it is tired of
the iteration of the hardship the farmers
suffer by the MCKINLEY tariff. 1t thinks
the Democratic press and Democratic
speakers are playing the demagogue to be-
so constantly harping upon the way the
agricultural interest is affected by that act.
Of course it is the producers that the mon
opolists are after. They are not accumu-
lating their riches off one another, and as
the wealth of the country comes mostly
from those who get it out Of the ground, it
is these last who in the end have to su staiu
the burden. For a long time the
tariff question seemed to the farmers
to be so mixed up with intricate
statistics, with questions involving masses
of figures, that they wouldn't bother with
it, leaving it to be debated by the politi-
clans to their hearts, content. But of late
the mystiication is clearing away, and
they begin TO see clearly how they have
stood in their own light by not investigat-
Ing. Leaving the tariff question to the
politicians they find is like leaving the
lamb to the tender mercies of the wolf.
AL Of a sudden they awake to the fact that
with their plausible pretexts about sus-
tanning home enterprise, about keeping out
pauper labor, about providing home mar
kets, ETC., the politicians of the Republican
party, in the interest of the northeastern
manufacturers, are riding them with taxes
and taking year by year more and more of
their substance.
Of course it is "tiresome" to the Repub-
a ho L.
eyes of the deceived and swindled tillers of
the soil, and show them where and how
they have been 80 long victimized. All
sorts of fimsy statements are made to
ward of the singing and staggering facts.
1t is even asserted that the MCKINLEY act
does not neglect the farmer, but protects
him as we'll as the manufacturer; and
whilst it was before congress some had the
audacity to assert that this tyraunous
piece of legislation was intended for his
benefit aud the effect would be to increase
the prices of all staple crops by interpos-
ing q protective duty between him and
similar crop raisers abroad. Even some
Republican congressman who pretended to
represent western agricultural interests
attempted to make their constituents De-
lleve this nonsense. Farmers are not so
verdant as that. They know that the crops
we export largely of cannot be protected.
Protective duties are intended to increase
the price of the protected articles in the
home market. Therefore, when we pro-
duce 80 much Of any article, say wheat,
corn, oats, meats, cattle, cotton and to-
bacco, that we cannot consume all of it,
and send the surplus to foreign markets to
be sold for what it will bring, protective
duties cannot increase the price
Yet the MCKINLEY tariff does go through
the grimace of levying duties on foreign
meat, cattle. grain. and even vegetables.
The duty on corn is Is cents a bushel, which
is nearly as much as the grain sells for at
the end of a good season in Nebraska
When the duty is placed on manufac-
tured article, like blanket, the home
manufacturer adds it to the price and
makes the consumer pay it. Thus, if the
blanket is worth 81 and the duty is 60 cents
the consumer has to pay SLIGO. But who
pretends the farmer, when corn Is worth
10 cents, can add on the duty and sell for 30
cents a bushel?
These bogus duties on grain, meats. etc.
are cheat and mockery to western
farmers, and are designed to deceive them
with the promise of something they will
never receive The real benefits of the
tariff, amounting to hundreds of millions,
ali go TO the protected manufacturer.