The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1892-10-01
War Upon the Farmer.

The deluded republican farmer has
voted to pay the mill. owners wage
bill-has to sell his wheat at the
cheapest market and pay a higher
price for his binders, &C, than the
foreigner, who gets a discount of from
80 to so per cent. from the American
farmers prices. The American Mail
and Export journal publishes Il for
eign edition. which contains a foreign
price list that is kept sacred from
American eyes. A copy was pro-
cured from S,uth America, which
shows that the foreigner can buy at
an average Of so per Cent. cheaper
at retail than the American can at
wholesale. Here is an extract flom
a letter by the Journa! which was
read in the u. S. senate:
Your statement that the foreigner can
buy at retail in this market cheaper than
the domestic consumer is as indisputable as
the daily revolution of the earth. We can
enumerate any number Of instances where
houses have written to us: "Prices fur
nisned ire for export oaly, AMI it would be
most injurious to us if these fgrres were
circulated~in the home market"
The editor of the farmers Call,
"a protectionist paper published at
Quincy, ILL.,, wrote to Mr.. A. B. Far
quhar, president Of the Pennsylvania
Agricultural Works at York, who is
one of the largest exporters and
one of the largest mill owners Of this
country. The editor asked for the
facts. Mr.. Farquhar's letter is as
follows:
The fact is that cur protective law are
n mons.rous swindle upon the agricultural
community. As, n manufacturer | was in
clined to say nothing upon the subject, fox
the reason that it was natural to suppose
if anybody was benefited it was the manu-
featuring class, to which l belong. But,
as l have explained, the farmer is being de-
stroyed. We are killing the goose for the
golden egg. And I honestly believe now
that it is to the interest Of the manufactures
themselves to eliminate the protective fea.
ture from our tariff laws. &"
Certainly our manufactures are. sold
much lower abroad; we could only need
protection to get better prices from our Gus
toners at home. We do manufacture and
sell in Canada, South America and Europe
many agricultural implements aud ma
chimes, and could we have free raw material
and the commercial advanta ges WI ich free
trade would give us. America wonld become
the great commercial and manufacturing
emporium of the world, and the farmer of
course would share the prosperity, since Ire
would have less to pay for everything and
get better prices for all he sold. Go on,
with your good work. When the farmer
begins to think and rise up against this
swindle it is doomed.
Comment upon this expose Of a
rotten system is needless. Protec-
%tionists say the tariff increases wages.
How do they &C count for the 500 or
more strikes by w>rkmen against re-
ductien in wages since the Mckinley
bill was passed. Why should the
Dakota farmer be taxed for the ben.
eft Of the manufacturer and mill
owners, ostensioly to pay alleged
better wages? Who helps the far her
when his crops fail? Projection is
killing the home market, as we'll as
our market abroad, and supplanting
the American workmen with the
scum Of the nations Of the world
JAMES FLEMING.
ts