Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1892-10-26

tainty, and that is that the price of
that crop will not be settled by any
combination of American farmers
shielded from the competition of
outside wheat-raisers and able to
dictate both the quantity they will
produce and the price at which they
will sell to American consumers.
He will receive for his wheat,
whether sold in Missouri, or in West
Virginia, or in Illinois, the price
fixed in the Liverpool and London
markets, less the cost of sending his
wheat to those markets and the pro-
fits of the middlemen.
Now the price of wheat in those
markets is fixed by open and free
competition between American, Rus
sian, Indian and other wheat sup
plies. In other words, our farmer
sells his wheat at the price made for
him in the open free-trade markets
of the world in competition with
the wheat of farmers who employ
the cheapest labor of the world. OF
our great wheat crop of last year
quite two bushels out of every five
were thus sold, and the market price
OF the entire crop was established by
this sale. There are not two prices
for the American farmers wheat,
one when he sells to Carnegie and
Whitman and other home protected
manufacturers and another when he
sells to the manufacturers of Leeds,
Manchester and Staffordshire. Both
pay him the same for his product.
But when he comes to buy what he
wishes to get in exchange for his
wheat, then he finds great differ
ence. The Englishman gives him
at least one-third more things, such
as wooden goods, and much greater
quantities of pottery, tableware,
glass, iron, steel utensils, tinware,
sewing machines and the like. But
if he makes this bargain, and at
tempts to bring these needed things
home with him, his Government
will take one-third of them from
him as IA fine for buying from his
foreign instead of buying from his
home customer-although his home
customer pays him not a cent more
for his wheat than does his foreign
customer.
What, then, is the plain effect sc
far as the American farmer is con.
cerned? Exactly the same as if the
Government sent to his granary ant
took from him one-third Of his
wheat before he was permitted tC
sell any part of it for himself and
used part of that third for public
revenue, but most of it for bounty
for protected industries.
The farmer, therefore, gets fol
his own use only two-thirds of what
his wheat sells for in the open free.
trade markets. And the Govern.
ment, by forcing him to buy in the
protected home market from Gus
toners that charge him so per cent
more for his purchases, virtually
takes from him one-third of his
wheat for the benefit of those Gus.
toners. Let the farmer remember
this as he sows his wheat this fall
Every third furrow that he plows
every third round that he makes
with harrow or drill, is his tariff
furrow, or his tariff round. Two
thirds only of his hard work does
the Government permit him to keer
for himself.
And it is chiefly the men in the
Mississippi Valley and in the North
west, who pay this tribute, that
they hitherto thwarted all our efforts
to lesson or abolish it, deluded into
the belief that there is more pros
perity for them in paying three
bushels of wheat to one customer
for the same article than to pay two
to another, even though the latter
takes far more of their wheat, and
must continue to do so, if they are
to have any market for it.
And yet they complain that farm
ing is not profitable and that land
is cheapening in value.-William L.
Wilson.