Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-10-02
FARMERS AND TARIFF
Home Demand Supplies the Chief
Market for Agricultural
Products.
WHERE THEIR INTEREST LIES.
Effect of curtaiIing the Purchasing
Power Of the Men Employed
in Factories.

We export about one-thfrd Of the
wheat grown in the United States either
in the form of -four or of wheat. We
export only about 5 per cent. Of our
corn crop. The expectation of other
grain is as rule trifling in quantity, al
though the very low price of oats for the
past two years, owing to heavy produc-
ton and falling off in the home de-
mand for consumption by street rail-
way horses and driving horses, has led
to a considerable foreign movement in
this grain. OF our meats we probably
export about 10 per cent, although exact
statistics are not available on this point.
These figures are sufficient to make it
plain to the intelligent farmer that the
home market is his great market, and
that any causes which reduce the home
demand for provisions directly injure the
farming interest.
Besides the staple articles of grain and
meat, there are a multitude of farm
products for which there is no market at
all except the home market. This in
cludes the whole range of perishable
fruits and vegetables, and also includes
Other important items are poultry and
eggs. All thrifty farmers know the value
of home markets for such articles as
these, and know, too, that much of the
profit of farming comes from the minor
productions of the farm.
If we are to have increased home con-
sumption of farm products we must have
labor generally employed, and at fair
wages, in the towns and cities. To keep
labor well employed it is absolutely es-
sential under the present conditions that
we should have protective duties upon
This is no longer matter of theory,
about which intelligent men dispute. 1t
was held for time by the advocates of
free trade that the superior intelligence
Of the average American workingman and
used would be sufficient protection to
insure our own markets for our own
manufactured products. This is a de-
lusion which no intelligent man now ad.
vocates. The extension of commerce by
laying Of submarine telegraph cables,
the worldwide habit of travel, the cheap.
ness and convenience of transportation,
and the general spread Of intelligence
by newspapers has put the entire civ.
lizsd and se%icivilzed gob! globe in close n.
into China and Japan, and no important
Improvement is made in inventions il
this coutry that is' not Immediately
known in all parts Of Europe. The skill
and producing capacity ; Of the meehanics
constantly being increased by the sharp
ness of competition and by the introduc
ton of new methods and machinery
Labor all over the world is tending to q
common level.
Now the thoughtful farmer will readily
see that If we were to keep up the abili.
| ty Of our own shop and factory popula,
ton to consume his product in liberal
quantities we must maintain an excep
tional rate of wages. If through sucf
| free-trade legislation as Mr.. Bryan and
his followers advocate we are to lowel
our American wage-earning population Il
manufacturing countries which compete
| with us, then there would be a grea
surplus Of farm products in this countr,
for which there would be no home mar
keep ont food Of such articles as vi
manufacture IN our own country, or VI
viii soon be delused with cheap ware
and fabrics from japan and China .