Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-22
AGRICULTURE AND POLITICS.
New England Farmers Abandon Their
Fields Because of the Tariff Tax

New England Farmers Abandon Thstz
Fields Because of the Tariff Tax.
Our civilization rests upon agriculture.
To 1t every strong state must look, not
only for bread, but in large measure for
men who are to uphold its society. We
have won and maintained our institu-
tons In peace and war by the aid of the
sturdy citizens who were born and bred
upon farms; therefore it is the first duty
of our Legislators 10 take care that the
laws do not endanger the prosperity of
those who till the soil
The present condition of agriculture
In New England shows clearly that the
protective tariff is harmful to the inter.
ests of the farmer. Thirty years ago this
part of the United States contained thou-
sands of small farms, which are now
abandoned. In every neighborhood we
see these deserted homesteads falling in
ruins and their fields returning to forests.
The traveller in these districts feels that
some great plague has fallen upon the
people. Thus in the towns of Tisbury
and Chilmark, in Dukes county, Mass.
more than three-fifths of the farm
steads Of thirty years ago are now
deserted. On one tract of 200 acres.
where formerly stood twenty-five farm
houses, only eight remain, and the great
er part of the fields has grown up in
brushwood. Several of the New Eng
land states have been led to the ex-
traordinary measure of making census
Of their abandoned farms, with the hope
that foreigners might be induced to buv
them. Although these lists are imperfect
IN that they take account only of those
places where the houses and fields are
still hit for use, the results are startling.
They show that the small farmer is rapid
ly being driven from the land which for
centuries had maintained his forefathers
IN prosperity. The census of 1890 shows
a loss of population in $50 rural towns
In New England.
One reason why the small farmers
have been driven to abandon their
fields is found in the fact that the pro-
tective tariff greatly increases the ex-
penses of their households In a family
of five persons engaged in farming, and
living with strict economy, at least $3.50
has to be spent for clothing, household
utensils, farming tools and the materials
which are used in repairing buildings
and fences. On the average more than
fifty dollars of this sum is due to the
protective tariff This tax is great
enough to make life and death differ
ence in the struggle of man who has
to depend for his success on his own
strength and the natural resources of a
small tract of ordinary New England
land. With that amount of money on
the right side of his account he can
support his family and put by something
for his old age. Without it he must
fail.
When the system of the protective
tariff was begun the farmers were prom
ised that the manufactures which it
would induce would afford them high
priced market for the Pre- acts of their
fields. This theory has ? wed TO be ut
terly in error, except in tho case of the
market gardens near the great cities
which are owned by men of capital and
titled by hired labor, no part of our
agriculture has had any considerable
advantage from the establishment of
factories in New England 1t is now
made clear by experience, rs it is evident
from reason, that the price of our soil
products Is determined by the market
rates of European countries where our
surplus Is sold. The notion of the add
vantages of home market is shown by
the facts to be fallacious. Instead of
being blessing to the small farmer, the
tariff is a curse which steaIthily works
for his ruin.-Professor n. S. Shaler in
New England Tariff Reform Almanac.