Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1896-10-02
ONE EFFECT OF THE WILSON
TARIFF ON THE FARMERS.
How 10 Hss Injured Their Markets In the
Lumber and Mining Regions Then
Beat Customers Becoming Competitors
-Fsrmers' Institutes In the Upper
Peninsula,

Next In value TO the farm products
Of the state, and following close upon
them, ore the products of the pine and
hardwood forests, the pine lumber,
lSth and shingle cut alone, having, in
its best years, reached a value of over
$50, 00o, 900. When these two industries
Are booming the pine and hardwood
forests and mills furnish the best mar
ket there Is for the products of Mich
tgan farms The lumber camps, in
winter, create demand for immense
Quantities OF hay. oats and bran, to-
eethss with market for draft horses.
fhoy sre also heavy consumers Of
every staple article of food for man, es-
pscially for those products in which
Michigan excels, wheat flour, beans.
potatoes. apples, beef cattle and pork.
Following the breaking up of the lum-
Der camps In the spring comes the
starting of the sawmills, which con-
tinue the demand through the summer
and fall In the most prosperous years
for numbering the farmers north of the
D., G. II. & NJ. railway have had a mar
ket for their products almost at their
own doors and at their own prices.
Changes in the tariff have had a
immediate effect upon this industry by
transferring a good deal of the sawmill
work to Canada, while the general de-
precision of business has greatly re-
duced the demand for lumber. Not
since 1857, when it was in its infancy,
In. tho lu,pbar hucipoce Of Michiran
been so paralyzed as during the present
year. Operations in the camps last
winter were smaller than for many
years before, and the mills are running
light this summer Stocks on hand are
heavy and their owners find it difficult
10 realize on them. AS a result the
farmers have lost the excellent marke t
which they formerly had in the woods
and the sawmill towns, and have to
pay freight charges and commissions
before they can get Detroit prices,
while they become competitors with
their brethren from other parts of the
state In the Detroit and eastern mar
kets. The depression in this one in
dustry has made difference of many
IUOuSduu III LutlT
eeipts since the Wilson bill passed.
Next TO the lumber camps and saw
mills the mines Of the upper peninsula
employ more men and pay out more
In wages than any other single indus
try in the state. In 1892, before the
election turned the country over to the
Democracy, many OF the iron mines of
northern Michigan were running night
and day shifts, with as large a force of
men as they could work to advantage.
Wages were good and the men and
their families were liberal purchase rs
of clothing and OF all food products.
With tho threat of tariff changes came
threat was followed by the enactment
of the Wilson tariff, which dealt to
iron manufacture heavier blow than
TO any other branch of manufacture
except that Of wooden goods. Within
one year after its enactment that law
doubled the importation Of bar iron.
destroyed the cotton industry in this
country and closed up the factories,
almost doubled the imports of steel in
gots and blooms, and increased the i'm
ports of tin plate" The direct result
OF these increased imports is lessencd
demand for American iron ore and the
evil is aggravated by the general de-
preston of business caused, in part, by
the same tariff The result is disas-
trous to the Michigan mining district.
During the past six weeks, when ope
rations ought TO have been more active
than at any other time in the year,
mine after mine has ceased work. and
In some cases the pumps even have
been stopped, allowing the mines to
all with water. Many of the miners,
instead Of being the most liberal of
purchasers, are likely, during the com
Ing winter, to require aid from public
appropriations or private charity.
The purchasing and consuming power
of thousands of families has thus been
seriously impaired. Not only that, but
many OF them have become producers
of farm and garden products When
the miners were earning from So. so to
Is. so day, with plenty of work, they
had neither time nor inclination TO
work farm or garden under the diSad-
vantsges of soil and climate that e xist in
that region. But, under the stress of
enforced idleness and reduced pay, they
have undertaken both. Last winter
witnessed the novel spectacle of farm
srs' institutes In a region which before
that had possessed little of the quality
of an agricultural district, and another
for this winter.
The Wilson tariff has thus helped
90 destroy q good market and to
raise . competitor. DO the farmers
or lower Michigan want four years
more or L.?
All the prosperity enjoyed by the
American people, from the founding of
tina United States down TO tho present