The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-03-19
The oaleha Daily Eagle Ehursay zNorning sareI 10 1896

ted axiom that permanent prosperity IS
impossible under Impoverished agricul-
| ture-that there can be no such thing as
prosperous commerce when and where the
farmer has become but poorly paid in
| dustrial slave, we find pretended Ameri-
| can statesmen clinging 10 the monetary
! policy of a country which has given over
! agriculture for the more profitable en-
ployment of fleeing all the rest Of the
/ world, including her own vast colonial pos
| sessions.
There is no prosperity possible for Am
erica under a monetary policy which
dooms the farmer. Thirty millions of
| people of the United States are directly
| dependent upon agriculture. a gold
standard, combined with a Democratic
free trade policy means simply that the
profits Of the American farmer shall go
to swell the credit-surplus of Great Brit
ain. There is no question about this and
TO one VIII deny It save capitalists, their
banking-tools and corporate-organs
The only hope for the farmers of Amer
lea, and consequently the only chance OF
relief for the producing classes, is the
relief, which in the absence Of the re-
monetization of silver or the demonitiza-
ton of gold, must come through a pro-
tective tariff; and that relief reaches the
farmer only second-handed, that is
through a better market resulting in slim
ul2ted manufacture. That high protec-
tive tariff VIII improve the condition of the
farmer and producing classes, in increas-
ing home demand we admit. But TO see
every industrial interest of America
again or the high road OF prosperity and
all values restored TO the old scale both
bimetallism and protection are essential.
The present tariff law, known as the VIII
son law, in pretending to give the farmer
cheaper clothing. in fact robs him of
foreign market and kills his home mar
ket. This pauperizing policy added to
the outrage of deprecadng his farm and
all that pertains fully one-half the money
of the world, constitutes a burden which
would in another generation or two rem
der them industrial serfs in the same sense
that the English, Irish and India farmer
is today. First, then the farmers OF
America should stand for the restoration
of a high protective tariff, secondly for
the reconciliation Of silver.
The facts of the records are no stronger
against the destruction Of silver as money
than they are against the present tariff
for revenue only" law Congressman
Grosvenor of Ohio, in con ress the other |
dayin showing how the repeal of the Nc
Kinley bill had worked to the detriment |
of farmers, exhibited some figures taken |
from the records of the department which |
are so plain as TO call for no explanation. |
These figures are facts not theories, fig |
ures of actual occurrences. Our exports |
have fallen off not only under the pres |
ent law, but our imports have increased |
and both in a startling way, so far as the
products of the farm are concerned. Mr..
Cleveland and his gold-bug contingent
pirate about the interest of the
farmer and the laborer The figures
which Mr.. GrOsvenor gave were taken
from the records, covering the year which
ended the Mckinley law and the year
which followed under the Wilson law.
The figures Of his table shows the imports
md exports of farm products in the last
iscal year under the Mckinley law. It
nay be worth while making the state
nent that these two periods-the fiscal
'ear ended June 50, 1884, and the calendar
car begin 7 :rg January ], 1S9J-inost near
Y touch the date at which the change
vas made from the old to the new law
f any annual periods covered by the cffi-
ial statements of the treasury depart
nent. The fiscal year 1894 closed two
months before the end of the operations
# the Mckinley law, and the calendar
ear 1898 began four months after the
wilson law had begun its work. Each
ears figures may, therefore, be assumed
o present fairly normal picture of the
workings of the two laws, and thus 10 !
i've for the first time since the enactment
t the Wilson law an absolutely accurate
ficial comparison of their operations af-
Getting the great class of citizens Of the
'nited States dependent on agriculture:
IMPORTS OF FARM PRODUCTS.