The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-02-21
THE FARNISG INTEREST.

them if their intelligence and self interest were TO
choose him as their candidate Mr.. Hodges upon
that occasion said:
THE FARMING INTEREST.
Il shall not present to you this evening the tariff
question with any degree Of fullness. 1t has been
discussed in Congress- the stings Of the eoun
try by the public press and By own speakers in
the present canvas from skin to and from core
back TO skin again. Discussions seem to have OK
hausted the subject and perhaps the patience the
people
But there is one point which has not been pre-
scented very fully in our city canvass, and thats the
bearing of the tariff on the farming interest. And
as the commercial development of Baltimore de-
ponds in large degree the agricultural prosperity
of the country should be deeply interested in
| everything, and understand everything, which af
fleets the farming classes, and do all we can by our
votes and influence 70 promote the farming interest
Applause. shall, therefore, briefly alude to that
/ branch Of the tariff question in my address this
| evening.
| Under the Mckinley law the farmers like the
rest Of Us, will pay an average tariff tax of 60 per
cent. on everything they buy-clothing tools, agri
| cultural implements and all articles of household
utility. 1t would be tedious to give you fuller
enumeration of articles in this connection. There
are 1000 in the schedule entering into daily
1t is the average percentage which concerns all,
and that has been raised from a per cent. which
was mountain high to CO per cent which is sky
high. This will make difference of SIS in the
hundred to every consumer.
now TO SELL At FREE TRADE PRICES.
we ship to foreign countries annually about
s6JgDDOOOO worth of agricultural p.oducts. The
prices Of these commodities fixed at free trade
Liverpool every day in the year. And these Liver
pool prices regulate our home prices every day in
the year. They are reported by cable, and these
Liverpool prices become the prices here, less the
cost OF freight and other shipping expenses send
them abroad for sale. In other words the difference
in the prices of American products at home and
abroad is the cost of carrying them abroad. With
out any protection from the government the surplus
production of wheat for example, is sold to foreign
consumers in competition with the grain shipped
from Russia. India Egypt Hungary and other pow
ertystricken countries where the wages of the field
hands range from cents twenty cents a day.
In these countries you will find the real pauper
labor Of the world.
Hence it the American farmer and not the
American manufacturer that has TO compete with
| it, The hardships of the American farmer may be
explained in a few words. lie sells everything he
raises on free trade basis, and buys everything he
uses 60 per cent. tariff basis. Now that is the
case in a nutshell. No special business can succeed
tons with other branches unless it should be
red by the chosen Of God on the theory of mira
cles, and you know that miracles can only he
| wrought by the suspension of natural laws.
CAUSE or AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.
The farmers are crushed between the upper and
neither milIstoncs of low prices abroad when they
sell. and high prices, high tariffs and high monop
oies at home when they buy. If this thing goes on
much longer the factory whale will have Jonah,
! the farmer, in his belly pretty soon. Laughter
And that result in disaster to every citizen in
Baltimore. LApplausel
"Our agricultural depression has been ascribed to
! many causes such as insufficient currency, exces-
siye agricultural production, increased transporta-
! tioual facilities by which markets more rapidly
/ glutted, and to combines which put up and MAIN
| tain high prices for imported and domestic goods
which the farmers have to buy. These are all con-
tributing causes, without doubt, but the primary
reposes in the high protective policy of the
Republican party By this policy the farmers, as
have said before, sell all they raise at free trade
prices, and buy all they use at prices 60 per cent.
above free trade prices.
This practice of selling cheap and buying dear,
which has been so disastrous TO farmers must con-
| tinuc as long as the high protective system remains
in force The remedies which have been proposed
for their relief visionary makeshifts and will
/ NOT IeIlbFt liit IneFe Is out one way OF
escape and that is in the direction of tariff reform
as enuuciated by Grover Cleveland-applausel-
and advocated by the great National Democratic
party. TApplause.l
HENRIETTA CLOTH ILLUSTRATION.
Now, permit me TO give you illustration TO
show how the tariff works on ladies dress goods.
1t has been most audaciously alleged by Republican
| speakers, and recently in the most conspicuous
manner by that radical Republican high priest of
protection, Congressman Mckinley, of Ohio, that
the foreign manufacturers whose goods are import
ed into this country pay the import duties. And
Speaker Reed in his speech at st. Paul Tuesday
night remarked that the tariff is license for the
use of the American market and that it is paid by
| the foreig er. more erroneous assertion has sell
I dom ever been uttered by n distinguished public
man.
and figures that must forever put this question of
who pays the duty at rest And this statement is
founded on my own knowledge and experience as
an importer or4O years service in that branch of
| business My firm are importers of women's dress
goods, and shall conine my illustration to Il very
small item that can be easily remembered, namely
dress pattern of 20 yards of silk warp Henrietta
cloth, which cost my firm two shillings and five
pence per yard at Bradford, England, which in
American money would be "a cents per yard or
Sl0S0 for the dress pattern.
WHO PAID THE DUTY?