The herald., 1896-02-02
ply that nothing can he done to help them;

ply that nOt1lng can DE uOno 10 uet p ttietIl !
and they ought not to be.
Let us consider frat the case Of the far.
mers. Apart from the general I'M Justice of,
our tax systems. from which they suffer in
common with all who are not very rich,
they are especially injured by the want of
sufficient markets for their corn, wheat,
cotton and meat. When crops are large,
prices fall to such a low point that farmers
are discouraged. When prices are high,
it is because crops have failed and multi
tudes of farmers have been ruined. What
American farmers need is, clearly, new
custo ners, who could afford to buy $780,
100000 worth of additional farm pro-
duets at present prices, or even higher.
Can such customers be got? Yes, they
can. When? Within the next twelve
months. How? Not by silver coinage, or
paper money, or abolition of banks OF gov
ernment warehouses, or suh-treasury
schemes. Not one new customer is to be
had by such means. How, then? By abol-
ishlg the protective tariff.
The present high tariff administration
has officially stated that there are 150.-
OO0, 900 people in Europe. who never eat
wheaton bread. Why do they not? Would
they not relish it just as much as we do?
Certainty they would. But they are too
poor 10 buy it. Why are they 80 poor?
Because we, and other people as foolish as
we are, refuse 10 take from them the good
things which they would be glad to make
and send in exchange for wheat. Millions
of them do not eat meat more than once a
week, millions never eat it at all Why
not? Because we, who rase more
meat than We know what to do with. will
not accept their goods in exchange for our
meat We insist that they shall pay us in
gold and they have no gold and never will
have: because only few ounces OF go d
or silver are produced in all Europe out
side of Russia. When they offer to pay us
~f irl,
have, that is, manufactures, we shut these
out by an enormous taritf.
Sweep away the tariff; and the farmers
of America would instantly have cnstom-
ers, at high prices, for all the wheat. corn,
meat and cotton which they could possibly
| raise for years to come. Within one year
! they could sell more of these things to
Europe, in addition to all which they sell
| now, than all the manufactures and min
ers and their workmen in the United
States will buy in two years. At very
low estimate they would buy S50O,0OO,-
! 600 worth of American farm products in
excess of what they take now. Our farm
ers would receive an equal amount of good
things, such as they now want but cannot
| afford to buy. This increased demand
would give the farmers much better prices
for everything which they have to sell,
while lessening the cost of everything
which they buy.
w Hdt duVduoeSc Sdfi iIcO ciifoi tOilhRo
| offer TO the farmer compared with this.
! Suppose it would raise the price of farm
| produce % per cent, yet, as it would
raise the price of all which the farmer
| buys, at least as much, his only benefit
| would come from the margin of his saw
| ings, even If we conceded that, which do
not His annual savings cannot average
| more than 90 per cent. of his income. The
| most favorable result of an expanded cur
rency, therefore, would be to make him
possibly per cent. better off.
But the repeal of the tariff would at once
raise the price of all which he has to sell
| by at least 20 per cent. while it would re-
duce the cost oe most of the things which
| he has to buy as much, and in many cases,
buy much more. Thus the farmer would
! be from 80 to 40 per cent better off. In
the far west he would gain much more,
because the cost of transportation remain
| Ing the same, whether grain is high or low,
an advance of 20 per cent. on the New
| York price is often equal to so per cent.
on the western price. Thus, last year,
when corn sold in Kansas at 20 cents and
| in New York at 45 cent, the advance of 10
! cents meant only 20 per cent. IN New
! York, while 1t meant so per cent. in Kan
| sas. Corn IL high now. because the crop
has been a comparative failure, but with a
! greatly increased European demand for
| beef and pork, such as would come at once
| if our tariff were out of the way, our farm
ers would sell the largest crop at high
prices. The farmers Of Dakota, Minne-