South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1892-09-16

FRIDAY. SEPT. le. 1892.
Farmers I Read Thisi
TARIFF PRIMER.
THE SUBJECT MADE PLAIN.
WHAT THE TARIFF is.
THE DEPRESSION OF AGRI-
CULTURE.

THE DEPRESSION OF AGRI-
CULTURE.
@. But has not the agricultural
interest thriyed and prospered nm
der the protection policy? Are not
farmers better off under.it?
A. No. The agricultural interest
has not thriyed under it. Farmers
are growing worse offssevery year;
and 8 conclusive proof of this is that
farm mortgages in the West are
rapidly and even alarmingly in
creasipg every year, lands are be-
coming lower in value and more
difficult of sale; and in many of the
best farming regions, the obnox-
ious landlord and tenant system is
taking the place of independent
proprietors.
Q. Still. has not the farming in
te,est developed far more under the
last twenty-seven years of high tar
iff than it could have done under a
low tariff?
A. The census reports furnish
an interesting and instructive. mega
tive answer to your question.
The total value Of farms in the
United States in 1850, was So, 271,
575, 425. In the next decade. end
ing in 1860, this had increased to
S6, 645, 045, OO7-the increase being
SO, 1873, 479, 581, or more than 100
per cent. In 1870 the total value
was $9,262, SOB ,85-the increase
in this decade having been s2,6l7,-
65S, S54, or about 40 per cent. At
the end of the following decade, in
1880, the total value was $40, 197,-
096, 776-the increase having been
1884, 292,9l5- less than 10 per
cent.
These figures show thst in the
low tariff decade from 1850 to 1860,
the total value of farms increased
two and half times as much as in
the high tariff decade, from 1860 to
1870; and nearly as much as in the
two high tariff decades between
1860 and .IS80-and this, too, al
though the population of the coun-
try increased over $4,000, 0O0--from
81, Az, 321 to so, 155, 1888, in these
last two decades. They show also,
that the only one of three decades,
between 1850 and 1880, in which
the increase was less than billion,
was tho high tariff period from 1870
to 1880.
The number Of farms in The
country increased sos, O04-from
!, 449, 093 to 2,044, 077--in the low
tariff decade, between 1850 AID
1860; and it nearly doubled, in
crossing from 2,044, O77 to 1885,
9O7-in the two following decades,
between 1860 and 1880; bat while
the number was thus largely in
creased, it took them twenty years
of high tariff to show as large per
centage of increase in value, as they
made in ten years of low tariff.
Again, the value of agricultural i'm
provements and machinery increas-
ed 60 per cent. in the low tariff de-
cade, between 1850 and 1850, and
only 81 per cent. and 20 per cent.
respectively, N the two following
high tariff decades.
The value of all live stock on
farms increased nearly 100 per
cent.-from 1914, 1905 to 81
0S9, 1929, 915-in the low tariff de-
cade between 1850 and 1850; and
only 40 per cent. in the two follow
ing high tariff decades between 1860
and 1880 There was an actual
falling off of nearly $50, 900, 900 in
the last decade. There were As, 900,
600 more farm animals in the coun-
try, but they were not worth as much
by &25, 100000. The numbers
were, for 1870, IS, 766, 900; for 1880,
131, 900. 900; and the valu es were,
for $40, 81, 525, 276, 457; and for
1880, 81, 500, 464, 500. The average
value of all farm animals fell off
from S17.70 to s11 so per head, in
the decade between 1870 and 1880
"A period in which the high tariff
policy ia claimed to have reached
it's greatest development. and
brought the largest amount Of ben
eft to the manufacturing states.
CAN WE MANUFACTURE
WITHOUT PROTEC-
TION7
Q. Suppose the protective duty
on imported goods we're reduced,
would not the country be flooded
with foreign manufactures, and
our own industrial establishments
be forced to close up and turn of
their armies Of employees to become
idlers and tramps?
A. Why should this be the case?
q. Because we cannot make
goods as cheap as they are made
abroad.
A. But we can make goods as
cheap as they are made abroad
and cheaper, too.
O. Yes--a few articles, perhaps,
rubfoh VA howa .,oor11or forsfttto-I