Griggs courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., Dak. [N.D.]) 1885-1902, 1892-04-29


years. am proud of that fact. If the
gentleman's state and my state 90 on
in these opposite directions, before the
generation now living shall have passed
away his state will be in u position of
poverty and mine in a position of !
wealth. [Applause on the republican
side.] In my single congressional dis:
trict we produced last year one-tenth
OF the entire wheat crop of the United
States, estimated by the secretary of
agriculture at 100000 and by our
state commissioner of agriculture at
81, 600, 900 bushels, equal in value to the
entire ~unual silver product of the
United States But wheat-ra,sing,
though extremely profitable when all
the circumstances affecting yield and
price concur to produce favorable re-
suit, is very uncertain business, more
precarlous even than mining or fishing.
There is always uncertainty where Il
community stakes it's entire years work
on a single crop, Il single industry, or
single venture of any kind No prutl-
ent man will do it. In order to escape
the chances of such accidents as "bad
years. and crop failures we must diver
sify cur industry. There is nothing
that can furnish so sure and safe Il le.
lance to tide us over in a ;'bad crop
Year. as the wool and mutton products
of our flocks and herds, fed almost en-
tirely on wild lands and the scatterngx
in the grain fields that would otherwise
be lost. Sheep will restore the fertility
of soil exhausted by wheat farming.
The opportunity to put in our time pro-
tilab!y i'll taking care of sheep during
the winter months, when the ground is
frozen, and of finding 81 market for our
mutton and wool ut q time of year
when our labor is not needed and can
not be employed at wheat farming, is
one of the greatest blessings that can
come to people situated as we are.
Here the hammer fell
Mr.. DINGLEY. l ask unanimous
consent that the gentleman be permit
ted to proceed five minutes more.
There was no objection
Mr.. JOHNSON of North Dakota.
Gentlemen of democratic party may
safely go to tho manufacturing dis
tricts with this bill and say: "See here!
We are protectionists. OF course we
are; we arc the original, Simon Puro,
none genuine without our name blown
in the bottle. We believe in protection.
We have given evidences and hostages
of good faith right here in this bill by
protecting your labor with 80 per
cent duty on manufactured WOODEN
goods" But in a kind of stage wlis-
per they say: 'While we belieye in 81
high protective tariff for tho benefit of
the manufacturer ON his finished pro-
duct, we do not believe in any protect
ion ut all for the farmer OH his wool.
These people living away out there on
tho prairics of Dakota ana in the far
west ar. engaged in producing raw ma.
terlal; that is unskilled labor; nobody
cares for them. We will protect yo,,
manufacturers with 80 per cent tariff
against your competitors in England
and France, while we expose the farm
ers and ranchmen of the west unpro-
tected to the fierce competition of the
Australian and South American sheep
raisers." Laughter.]
Tell me that wool is raw material
That may be I'LL right in the factories,
but with us the rain and tho sunshine
and the grass are raw material and
wool is finished product,
The raw material of the sheep breed.
er was an ungainly primcval beast with
long course hair and horns resembling
the Rocky Mountain goat, while his
finished product is the improved Merino
prize sheep exhibited at the fairs with a
20-pound fine wool fleece on his back.
The gentleman from Nebraska [Mr.
BRYANT told us the other day of the
ram that Abraham found caught by the
horns in bush, and of the Homeric
sheep tnat carried Ulysses and his com.
rades out of the giants cave. Such
great brutes as those could never be
profitably kept for their wool. They
were raised for their hides, horns, and
mutton.
They were the raw materials from
which the intelligence of man in the
course of thousands of years has evol-
we'd the beautiful Merino of modern
times.
The shoep p-breeder is therefore cult
waiting the finished product of
thousands of years of human endeavor.
We have improved sheep, however,
more i'll fifty years in America than was
done id many centuries before, because
we have applied skill, intelligence, and
industry to the care of them. In 1860
the fleece of our sheep weighed only
s.68 pounds each; now they weigh 6