The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-09-15
THE AMERICAN FARMER.

rial will prove equally as disastrous to
the party as its failure to keep its other
pledges.
The recent census reports show that
one-half the population Of the country
own their own homes, and the ratio In
the cities is one quarter, thus indicating
that the country ownership of homes is
more than 20 per cent.
Mr.. CLEVELAND decided that free wool
would injure no one in particular be-
cause he found that sheep were raisel
largely in little hocks of so and 100 in
thousands of places All over the country
The farmers of the country constitute
a tremendous element of our national
life. They might WELD a power that
would give them absolute control OF gov
ernment if they were solidified into one
party. A large part of them have been
led off into wildcat parties in the West
that promised them all sorts of impossi-
bilities, and while the deception has
lasted they have Inflicted blows upou
the old parties that have made old time
leaders wonder If the political end of
the world had come.
1t has been the misfortune Of the far
mers TO avethus been led into errors
that have brought about their own
undoing.
This is too vast nation, its diversity
of enterprises, its wonderful resources
are too great TO permit of the prolonged
existence of party of one idea. A party
for farmers would not correctly repre-
the transportation, the marine and other
interests of the nation.
A party TO be successful must care
fully protect all the varied interests of a
vast nation, constantly growing and
ever widening its sphere of action.
The Republican party has endeavored
to do this, but it must candidly be ad-
mitted that it failed until recent years
| to grant to the agricultural ele-
ment the protection that was its due.
| However, when once it realized the
necessity for so doing it extended its
protection in this direction, intelligently
and with desire to promote the best
| interests Of the farmers. Under the
Mckinley bill it granted them suitable
protection for their products, opened
new and valuable markets for
them, granted bounties in order
to secure beet, cane and
maple sugar production and the
farmer began to feel that he, too, was a
sharer in the benefits of a government
calculated to advance the best interests,
of big nation.
The Republican party has always
given recognition to the claims of the
farmer, but never uutil the MCKINLEY
bill with its reciprocity provisions did it
grant the full need of protection de-
manded and needed.
The Democrats have never given the
farmer any protection, have always legis-
lated against him and have tried to
demonstrate to him how much greater
his benefit would be if he could obtain
raw materials free. Free wool was to
be benefit. "You can get your cloth
ing so much cheaper that you carrafford
to accept reduced price for your
wool, says the Democratic orator.
Nonsense If the farmer were given
his clothing free it would not compen-
safe him for his loss.
But we must have free wool said the
Democrats.
We have got il. What is the result.
To be sure leading Mugwump New
England paper. to our shame, be it said, a
Rhode Island paper, sneeringly remarked
the other day that wool is free and yet
1ocks still exist in Ohio and the West.
Yes, aud we copy from its news columns
an Omaha, Neb., dispatch dated
September 10, which answers its sneer
"The passage of the tariff law has
created a stampede among sheep owners
to market all their sheep and att smpt to
raise no wool under the free wool clause
OF the law. Every available freight car
ON the Union Pacific is now in service
bringing The sheep from Idaho. Wash
ington, Montana, Oregon and Wyoming
TO the packing houses here. The Union
Pacific was compelled to borrow large
number Of cars from the Northwestern
and send them TO Idaho TO be filled with
sheep"
a vast American industry has been
destroyed, the farmer has lost one of his
most valuable resources and the Ameri-
can manufacturer viii soon be at the
mercy Of foreign wool growers
But the farmer suffers in other drec-
tions. The eggs. the butter, the hay,
the grain, the horses and cattle Of Cana
dian farmers, where wages are less than
half the wages in the United States, meet
them at every turn and dispute the