The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-05-30

| markets of the world and the dearest.
Hence staple agriculture foots the total
seems to pay a PORTION tof it, but this
| seems is delusion.
The paying for protsctfyn together with
the reduction of the price of the product,
caused by the Asiatic,; African and south
American competition, has, placed the pro-
Queer in a position which must slowly and
surely drive him from thersoil by foreclos-
| ures.
DECLINE OF THE WAGE RATE.
But this is not all. AS has been stated
turns comes the decline OF the wage rate;
and unless this condition is remedied,
wages must continue to decline until a
mean average is reached (which the Asiatic
minimum rate will ultimately permit.
| There is a remedy that 9may be applied
to overcome this destructiKe tendency, and
| the remedy is simple and effective. 1t is
that the government or the United States
shall cut off it's custom house receipts,
| pay a sum in oder to reduce the rate of
transportation of staple farm products from
| American. seaports tor foreign seaports;
and this will accomplish certain economic
| changes which shall be explained further
At this time we will lay down the detail
| of the plan in the rough Let us say
| that the charges for carriage by sailing
vessels from San Francisco to Liverpool
| is worth 20 cents a bushel The govern
| HeHt, ny Il new SHlpplnS receipt, issued
| by an act of congress, agrees to pay 20
cents bushel to the owner of the sail
! ing vessel, but permits the shipper to for
ward at the rate of 10 cents per bushel.
| What will follow? The following:
| Say 100 bushels of wheat are raised in
the United States, 25 bushels of which are
| exported, and 70 consumed at home.
| Whenever the price at Liverpool is 81 per
bushel, and the cost for transportation is
| 20 cents, the price of wheat in the United
| Stato ic nanfc hISh oil
This is not alone the price for the 25
bushels exported but also becomes the
| price for the Is bushels consumed at home
| as well. In other words, 100 bushels will
| realize $50. Should the United States gov
| eminent reduce the cost Of shipping to 10
| cents per bushel, it would cost the govern
| ment $3.50 for the 25 bushels exported but
| wheat would be worth 80 cents per bushel
| for the entire 100 bushels, thus giving the
| producer $40 more by the expenditure of
| $3.50 on the part of the government
| Directors now come forward and say:
| That reduction on cost of tranSporta-
| ton would reduce the Liverpool price"
| These DIRECTORS forget that the price fixed
| at Liverpool is the worlds price, and the
world will not voluntarily reduce it's price
| just to spite the United States.
Others again say that THE grower will
| receive $40 and the United States will pay
but $3.50, but the taxpayer and wage Garner
| Will have to pay the $40 in the advanced
| price of the wheat, hence there will be no
| saving to the wage earners." True as far
| as 1T goes. But the same may be said of
| lOU dozen suspenders. We obtain these
| from Austria for $3.50, with duty added
| would make them about $500. Now we pro-
| duce them for 5000 in our own country
| Who pays for the difference, whether they
are imported or made at home?
| WHO PAYS FOR PROTECTION?
| The taxpayers and wage earners, and yet
not all taxpayers nor all wage earners,
| the difference is paid absolutely by the
producer of staple farm products for he
alone, remember. is compelled to pay for
| protection and is again compelled to sell
his product at Liverpool or free trade
| prices. ~ Sc
The same would be the lresult if a manu-
facturer making knives Ing Connecticut was
compelled to pay American protection prices
for wages and necessities and then compel
| land. - is
AS was said before, the workingmen
seem to pay foc protection, but in reality
| they do not, and for the reason before
| given. t-L
Now, so long as labor is protected to the
| great extent that it Is it can surely find
| 1t nothing but just and reasonable to waive
| trlf1e Of its protection in the interest of
| staple agriculture. Should labor refuse
what will it gain? A larger loaf and cheaper
| cotton; but with it cheaper wages-ab-
solutely. Why will the cheaper wages
come? Because the decline Of the net return
| to the producer of farm staples will re-
duce his purchasing power, and with the
oecilne OF his purchasing power must come
| Inc decline In the demand for goods: with
| the decline in the demand for goods comes
the decline for the demand of skilled labor
with the decline in the demand for labor
comes the decline in wages.
We are not dealing here with shaping
| question as would like it shaped. We
| are dealing with a law and a condition as
real as the law of gravitation.
| False theory, false reasonings, false as
sumption can produce no progress. On the
| other hand, to cast aside a law tending
| toward ameloration Of conditions cannot
ameliorate those conditions No, not by
| haranges or endeavors, however vehement
| or violent they may seem in their nature
| The law must be obeyed if we are to have
| results.
| PRESS QUOTED IN CONFEDERATION
Let us now see if others corroborate the
| statement:
The Boston Journal, Feb. Is, '94, says:
| Now, however, the situation is changing
Russia has always been a grain producing
| country. but India has entered the field
only of late years, and Argentine still later
| The latter country has forged ahead with
marked rapidity, and is reported to have
| raised last year a surplus of 10, 900, 900 BUSH
| els of wheat. This is doubtless largely
due to the enormous investments of Brit
| ish capital"
The Pacific Rural Press, Feb H. a. in
| Oil di tlCIe copied from the ChCaSO Inter
| Ocean, says These facts suggest the an
swer to the query, Why is wheat so cheap
| 1t is matter of free trade. The wheat
| grower of Dakota is in competition with
| the ryot of India, the ex-serf of Russia
| the italian immigrant of the Argentine Re-
| public; and these cheap competitors all have
| inexpensive water communicat tons with EIu-
| ropean markets.
| The California Fruit Grower Feb. a.
| a. says: Not only is the price of our
| wheat fixed in the market of Great
| Britain, but it is fixed on the basis of
| the cheapest wheat coming to that mar
| ket from India, Egypt South America.
| Nothing is truer than that the American
| wheat farmer must compete in the mar
| ket Of London with the ryot of India the
| felahin of Egypt and the poems of Ar
| gentine Every bushel of wheat exported
| to Great Britain reduces the value Of ev-
| cry bushel, whether exported consumed
| at home. For everywhere in this country
| the price of wheat is regulated by the
| price in England, in connection with the
| cost of transportation to the Great Britain
| market"
Dry Goods Economist (New York;, Feb.
| II, 94, says: "As cotton is of the South
| wheat is the money crop of the West
Year by year the acreage devoted to wheat
| has increased with the growth of popula-
| ton, and the surplus available for export
| mas increased. But while we have been
! enlarging our surplus other countries have
| been going into wheat production for the
| purpose of export, and all this surplus has
| been poured into the European market in
| competition with u.s. with the effect of
| making the price of the grain lower and
| lower and taking from our grain growers