Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-01-28

quoCeu. CnlCaSO, Al Genus, Liver
pool, IS cents; wheat, Chicago, Is,
cents, Liverpool 90. About the
same time I bought clothes, boots
and shoes and other goods at less
than half the price here.
A friend from North Dakota told
me he went into a store when wheat
was selling for 4s cents per bushel,
and asked the price Of cracked
wheat. They told him 10 cents a
pound, 8 lbs. for a quarter; or for a
bushel of wheat and two cents they
would give him lbs. of cracked
wheat! The other 81 Tbs. was taken
for freight, both ways, and hand
ling. Is this an exception, or is it
the true status of the sshoms market"
after these many years? What
seems strangest is that if the farmer
buys loaf of bread at the village
bakery he has to pay freight to Liv-
erpool on the flour, freight on the
bread back, add large percentage
for handling. For proof of this
compare the cost of the flour that
goes into your wife's bread with the
two pound loaf you get in London
for five cents, and ,.lat again with
the twelve-ounce loaf you get here
for five cents. You may setit down
that as rule under the present sys-
tenn the farmer pays all the freight
on his wheat to England and all the
freight back again, with good
profit to the middlemen on nearly
all the manufactured goods he buys,
even though those goods are made
in America.
The remaining arguments must
state more concisely. A generation
ago protection was proclaimed as
temporary expedient, now as per-
manent policy. Then the farmers
were prosperous and could stand the
tax; but the recent economic changes
have been against them, the agricul-
tural values having risen less per
cent in the last thirty years than in
the ten years before the war, and
not much more in total amount.
Dry goods such as the farmer and
his family wear are entirely prohib-
tied by the present tariff, SO that his
clothes are largely mixed with
shoddy and made on poor machines.
Wages paid to agricultural laborers
in other countries are less than in
manufactures, while here they are
higher, especially than in the pro-
tected industries. Thus does not
only the hired man frequently get
more than the farmer himself for
his years work, but the farmers
through the protective system are
aiding the manufacturers TO lower
the wages of their employees, to put
sometimes as high as Is per cent OF
women and children in their place,
and to make possible the horrible
sweating process in our large cities
Instead of creating a home mar
ket, the exports of agricultural
products is constantly increasing
; and the farmer is unable to fix the
price either on what he has to sci
, or buy. Free whisky, free beer anc
i. free tobacco cannot take the place
of good clothes, good tools and the
comforts of life. Heavy taxes, in
} direct as we'll as direct, are reducing
| the small farmers to the non-taxpay
ing class and adding them to th'
5 dangerous surplus Of our large cities
For the $780, 100000. paid the gov
ernment as revenue we are compelled
/ to pay the manufacturers 100000,
!, 900 as profit. Instead ofhigh tariff aid
l ing our wool growers, wool is nov
7 two to five cents pound less than
!. year ago, and l5,552,s5l pound
more surplus on the market. Reel
: procity is with other agriculture
. countries by which the farmers maj
t ket can be increased comparativel
s little, while the manufacturin,
| countries are still kept closed t
S him. The treaty for reciprocity i
i, E.. 4