The Coconino weekly sun., 1896-09-24
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-third of the wheat grown in the United States either | in the form of flour or of wheat. We export only about , per cent. of our corn crop. The cxportation of other grain is as a rule trifiing in quantity, all though the very low price of oats for the past two years. owing to heavy produc- tion and q falling off in the home de- mand for consumption by street rail- ! way horses and driving horses, has led to 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 multitude of farm products for which there is no market at all except the home market. This in- cludes the whole range of perishablc fruits and vegetables, and also includes to a very great extent the dairy products 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 large range of foreign-made articles. s., r Al about which intelligent men dispute It was held for time by the advocates of free trade that the superior intelligence of the average American workingman and the superior quality of the machinery he used would be sufficient protection to insure our own markets for our own manufactured products. This is a de- fusion which no intelligent man now ad- vocates. The extension of commerce by steamship lines all over the world, the laying of submarine telegraph cables, the worldwide habit of travel, the cheap ness and convenience of transportation, and the general spread of intelligence ilized and semi-civilized globe in close business relations. Our ingenious labor saving machines are being introduced into China and Japan, and no important improvement is made in inventions in this coutry that is not immediately kHUWu III dn pdTtS OI Europe. ne Sklll and producing capacity of the mechanics and operatives of other countries are 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 a 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- tion to consume his product in liberal quantities we must maintain an excep- tional rate of wages. If through such free-trade legislation as Mir. Bryan and his followers advocate we are to lower our American wage-earning population to the standards of living prevailing in the manufacturing countries which compete with us, then there would be great surplus of farm products in this country for which there would be no home mar ket We must. put up. tariff wall to keep out flood of such articles as we manufacture in our own country, or we will soon be dcluged with cheap wares and fabrics from Japan and China as