The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1892-10-15
FARMERS FRIEND.
WHiTELAW REID THE ORIGINATOR OF
TNE FARMERS PROTECTIVE TARIFF.


puties on Farm Produc,s--He Organ
lied Il Method by which the Farmers
Of tho Country Spoke and Were n card.
The origin Of the Mckinley tariff of
1890 deserves more attention than it has
yet received. Since the senate finance
committee has made it clear that, under
this tariff, the wholesale prices Of farm
products have advanced in two years
1928 per cent, while the actual cost of
living to consumers has declined and
the wages Of labor have advanced, it is
proper to note that the most important
changes made by the tariff of 1890 were
explicitly proposed two years earlier by
a movement Of farmers suggested and
organized under the direction of White
law Reid the Republican ro,ninee for
vice president.
Early in 1887 Mr. RAid. the editor of
The Tribune, caused series of state
ments to he made and published show
ing the disastrous effects of lack Of
proper protection to the agricultural in
terest. In the summer of 1887 he sug-
gested through The Tribune that the
farmers in all parts of the country, by
their associations and by Individual let
ters, should state their wishes regarding
the tariff and the changes deemed neces-
Sary to their interests in view of the
then low prices of farm products. About
5000 replies, representing several han
dred thousand practical farmers-many
Of the letters We're from organizations
set forth with much particularity and
detail the workings of the old tariff of
1888 as respects the farmers and the
changes they desired.
Mr.. Reid saw the Importance Of put
ting into definite form this altogether
unprecedented manifestation of the
wishes Of farmers which he had himself
elected. He therefore caused some of
the most distinguished and influential
representatives of agriculture to be in
vited by The Tribune to examine and
report on these letters. They prepared
a general report i'll the form of an ad-
dress ''to the farmers Of the United
States" which was printed in The Trib-
une Of Feb. s, 1883. This report set
forth that:
An overwhelming majority of the
writers realized that the protective sys-
tenn, by building up other industries, has
enormously increased the demand for
agricultural products. With scarcely
an exception the letters received point
ont that the tariff should have directly
defended the industries of farmers in
ways i'll which it has not. 1t should
shield them as completely as any branch
Of the manufacture from the spaslnOdlc
and destructive competition which the
cheapness and degradation of labor in
some other lands permit Thousands of
farmers, therefore, appeal through TIE
letters considered to all other farmers
throughout the country to unite in de-
nanding for their great industry not
only indirect benefits, but the fair meas
ure Of direct protection it deserves"
The following definite proposals the
committee found embraced in the ma
.iority of the letters received. and they
suggested that the farmers of the United
States petition congress as follows:
PETITION FOR MORE EFFECTUAL PROTECTION
OF AGRICULTURE.
TO the Speaker of The House of Representatives:
The undersigned respectfully pray that agri-
preventing fraudulent impOrtatOns of cattle
on pretense that they are for breeding only.
BY a duty of ~ cents per buShel on barley,
with proportionate increase Of duty ON malt
By duties of % cents per bushel on potatoes
and onions, So per 100 on cabbages So per ton
on hay, 10 cents pound on hops, 20 per cent
on beans and peas, cents per dozen on eggs
50 per cent on fowls and poultry and on ''vege
tables in their natural state or in salt or brine
not otherwise provided for" with no removal
reduction of duties on market garden prod
ucts now dutable
Bysuch increased duties on fax and on linen
20 ods as will effectually encourage the prepa-
ration of fiber and manufacture OF goods.
By abolshMg all duties on sugar, with a
bounty to home producers.
By preventing imports of leaf tobacco suit
able for wrappers at the duty imposed on other
leaf tobacco and repeating all internal taxes
on tobacco.
BY restoring to wool growing the substantial
protection enjoyed under the tariff of 1867, so
modified as to meet the later forms of foreign
competition and of evasion.
A great number of these petitions We're
signed by farmers in every part Of the
United States, especially in the states
bordering on Canada, and were for
warded to congress. 1t is impossible to
say how many farmers signed them, for
took care to pay very little attention to
them, and the result was that the farm
ers Of the country expressed their desire
at the polls for change in the com
plexion of congress and elected Repub-
lican house for the Fifty-frst congress.
This was the one which passed the Nc
Kinley bill.
That measure provided against fraudu-
lent importation Of cattle paragraph
4s2). 1t imposed duty of 30 cents per
bushel Oh barley paragraph 252): As
cents per bushel on malt (353): duty of
IS cents per bushel on potatoes (2S3):
cents each on cabbage (273): s. per ton
on hay Ca7O; Is cents per pound on hogs
(279); 40 cents per bushel on beans (21O)
and peas esd; 5 cents per dozen on eggs
(215); 3 cents per pound on poultry G15):
20 per cent. on vegetables in their nat
ural state (2sS), and 45 per cent on veg
ctables prepared or preserved esq.
1t imposed duty Of So. 40 per ton i'll
stead of 500 on flax $50. and 50 per
cent. instead of 30 per cent Oh linen
i - r..