Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-07-13
a FLAeRAhI FRAUD.
Republicans Trying to Fool the Farmers
the Wool Question

On the w ooA NueSIhon.
The confidence of the g. o. p. in the
gullibility of the farmer continues to be
unbounded- Under the promise that
the Mckinley tariff was going to enrich
him, they induced him to vote for a
continuance of control in the party
that passed that measure; and now
when he is feeling severely the pinch
which that measure has given him,
they are trying to persuade him that
he is merely suffering from Fremont
ton of what is going to happen when
the law is repealed or modified The
act has been in force long enough TO
produce all the promised results, if they
are producible by such legislation It
has not only failed utterly to produce
them. but has, on the contrary,
brought disaster to industry and the
country generally. Yet the uphoiders
OF the act have the efrontery to tell
the country, and especially the farm
ers, that it is not the Mckinley act
which is responsible, but the possibil-
ity of its repeal.
Some of them are going even further
than this. A republican wool buyer in
this city boasted few days since that
he and his associates were doing what
they could to keep the price of wool
down in order to create a sentiment
among the farmers in favor of an in
crease in the tariff, in place of the re-
duction which is so earnestly demanded
by the best interests of all, including
the wool growers themselves. Their
plan is to persuade the farmer that the
low price offered is the free trade
price"-a price fixed by the prospect of
free wool after the democratic congress
assemblies
This pretense is fraud on its face
Waving for the present discussion as
to what the effect is likely to be on
prices of removing or materially low
ering the duty on wool, it is an abso-
Lutte certainty that nothing congress is
likely to do or can do at the coming
session will have any effect on the
price of American wool this season.
The market is already opened. The
buyers are in the field. The demand
and probable supply are known.
AL the elements that go to the making
OF market price are present; and the
pretense that the possibility Of a
change next season in the tariff on
wool cuts any figure in this seasons
price is preposterous. We believe 1t is
misfortune for the farmer and wool
grower that this is so. If it were abso-
lutely certain that the duty on wool
would be materially reduced or wholly
removed when congress assemblies, We
believe he could afford to hold his wool
for the better price which would
eventually follow. But in the absence
of'absolute assurance onsthat point this
seasons wool, or the bulk of it, will
have to be marketed at this seasons
price fixed as it is by the relations of
demand and supply, and injuriously af-
feeted as it has been by the operations
of the Mckinley act. If it is any lower
than can be fully accounted for by ref
erence to these conditions, that fact is
probably due to some such combina-
ton as that limited at by the wool
buyer between himself and his asso-
ciates to crowd the price down in order
to create a reaction in favor of the
tariff.
1t is a well understood fact that one
of the chief uses of our high grade
American woods is to mix with the
cheap foreign woods. If the latter
were imported free of duty there would
be, for an obvious reason, an increased
demand for them and consequently for
the American woods to mix with them.
The heavy duty has lessened the de-
mand for foreign woods because in
crease of price lessons consumption;
and as result there has been a falling
off in the demand for American woods
and a corresponding fall in price. Yet
the tariff men still offer their dis
credited panacea with a faith that is
perfectly marvellous They seem to
have a notion that the homeopathic
law of like curing like applies in
economics. High tariff has lowered
the price of wool; therefore to raise the
price put on more tariff. And they ex-
pect the farmers to be fooled again by
such nonsense.
Only few days ago the Ohio repub-
Hcans incorporated in their platform
demand for ''such full and adequate
protection for the wool industry as will
enable the American farmer to supply
the wool required for consumption in
the United States" But the American
farmer-the intelligent farmer, that is
does not want to supply 1.-The wool
required for consumption in the United
States" He can do better by supplying
the high-priced portion of 1.-THE finer
grades-and permitting the cheaper
grades to be raised abroad where land
money for him in raising cheap woods,
and would not be if the tariff were
made prohibitory. Two-thirds of the
wool brought into the country from
abroad is coarse wool of a kind that
would compel the American farmer, if
he undertook to raise it, to grow two
sheep in order to get a dollars worth
Is he going into that sort of an enter
prise when, by raising a'finer grade, he
can get twice as much for a single
sheep? The Ohio republicans and the
combine that is trying to bear the mar
ket with the cry of free trade prices
want him to do SO; but if he is wise he
will take warning by experience and
steer clear of them all-Detroit Free
Press.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
To judge by his recent utterance