The true northerner., 1896-10-28
HURTS THE FARMER.
THE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF
THE WILSON TARIFF.
Shall They Continue p Republican Plat
form Says N,-Ch 'cago Platform and
Candidate Says Yes-A Few Quotations
from Bryan's Speeches.

paign we have shown some of the ways
in which the Wilson German tariff has
injured Michigan farmers.
CD 1t has curtailed the exports of
farm products. In the fiscal year 1892,
under the Mckinley tariff and the re-
ciprocity treaties, the total value of
such exports was S799, 32s, 232. In the
calendar year 1895, under the Wilson
tariff their value was only $3.50, ,2l5,3l7.
falling off of S246, l6, 9l5, or over 80
per cent.
(2) 1t has increased the imports of
many farm and pasture products, in
cluding almost everything that is
raised in Michigan. OF wool alone the
imports during the fiscal year 1894,
which was the last full year of the Me-
Kinley tariff, were So, 152, 5s5 pounds.
In the calendar year 1895, which was
the first full year under the Wilson
tariff, they were PAS, ,9s9, Pr pounds, an
increase of 1913, ,s36, 639 pounds, or 35l
per cent.
(3) BY its depressing effect upon
manufacturing industries, especially of
wooden goods and iron manufactures,
it has greatly injured, and in some
cases destroyed, the home market,
which is the most valuable market for
the farmer.
(4) 1t has been especially disastrous
in its effect upon the lumber and iron
interests of Michigan. which in 1892
were employing more than 100, 900 men
at good wages, and which were large
consumers of almost everything that
was raised, for man or beast These
industries are not, now, employing one
fourth as many men as in that year,
and their consuming capacity is re-
duced in even greater proportion.
One of the main questions in this
campaign is whether the tariff policy
which has been thus destructive of
American industries and of home mar
kets shall continue.
The Republican platform says: 'We
renew and emphasize our allegiance
to the policy of protection as the bull
wark of American industrial independ-
ence and the foundation of American
development and prosperity. This
true American policy taxes foreign
products and encourages home indus
try; it puts the burden of revenue on
foreign goods; it secures the American
market for the American producer; it
upholds the American standard of
wages for the American workingman;
it puts the factory by the side of the
farm, and makes the American farmer
less dependent on foreign de mand and
price; it diffuses general thrift, and
founds the strength of all on the
strength of each. In its reasonable
application it is just, fair and impartial
equally opposed to foreign control
and domestic monopoly, to sectional
discrimination and individual favor
itsm To all our products
to those of the mine and the field as
well as to those of the shop and factory
to hemp, To wool, the product of the
great industry of sheep husbandry as
we'll as to the finished woolens of the
mills-we promise the most ample pro-
lection"
The Chicago platform, upon which
Bryan is RAINING, holds that tariff
duties should be levied solely for the
purposes of revenue" and adds, until
the money question is settled, we are
opposed to any further changes in our
tariff laws, except such as are neces-
sary TO make up the deficit in revenue
caused by the adverse decision of the
supreme court on the income tax"
Mr.. Bryan himself is even more
strongly opposed TO protection than
are the various parties which are sup
porting him. His chief reputation in
congress was made by his tariff
speeches of March 16, 1892, and
January 13, 1894. In these speeches
form, and in the 1894 speech he
advocated every reduction in the tariff
that was proposed, his only lament be-
ing that the reductions did not go far
enough, Here are two extracts from
the 1892 speech, and columns of the
same sort of stuff might be quoted:
Il desire to say that | am in hearty
sympathy with the majority of the
committee in its decision TO attack the
tariff in detail; and | think that the
bills which have been reported and the
bills To be reported will fully answer
the argument of the gentleman, that
we are making only slight assault
upon the system.
THE reduction which we have made
in the tariff upon manufactured articles
is a great reduction in existing sched-
ules. 1t is not as great reduction as
might be made. | believe that we
have left far more tariff than can be
shown to be necessary to provide for
any difference. If there is any differ
ence, between the cost of manufacture
here and abroad. But | am led to
agree TO this moderate reduction of the
tariff upon manufactured articles for
two reasons: First, because, in going
from vicious system-and | believe
that our present system is vicious
system, created by the necessities of
war and continued by favoritism-be-
cause, say, in going from vicious 10
correct system, the most rapid pro-
gress can be made by degrees"
The following is from the Congress
sional Records report of Mr. Bryan's
speech Jan. 49, 1894, when the Wilson
bill was under discussion.
Mr.. Bryan: II have said that the