The Saint Paul globe., 1897-02-08
THE FARMERS N THE TARIFF.

Representative Tawney and his tax
to illustrate the worse than absurdity
OF this grim farce of protecting the
farmer" What he has succeeded in
doing is to have the root taxed / cent
a pound, the tax on the manufactured
product being what it has been for
years. A couple of million pounds are
imported annually and ground and
used either as substitute for or to
be mixed with coffee. It's largest num-
ber Of consumers are farmers, who will
have to pay something more for their
chicory, because Of Mr.. Tawney's ef-
fcrts in their behalf. IF the root is a
product Of farming in this country,
we are not aware Of it, but probably
Mr., Tawney wishes to foster It's pro-
duction by a tax which is over SO
p.,r cent e me inlport value.
If there is any farmer who, reading
over the agricultural schedule, thinks
tfat he is going to be benefited by
the taxes placed on the long list Of
articles enumerated, he is too dull
witted to learn anything, even in that
school in which only fools are taught
and sometimes learn. The memories
Of such are as retentive of facts as
sIeVes Of water. Take any Of the items,
harley, for instance. The Mckinley
tax was 80 cents a bushel; the tax now
Is 80 per cent of the value: prior to
1890 it was 10 cents a bushel. Let any
farmer run back the prices under these
varying rates and determine, if he can.
how the tax on imports has affected
the price. In all these years we have
been exporting a surplus, and a tax
operates to increase price only when
there is a deficiency to supply which
imports are resorted to. Last year
we exported over 100000 bushels of
barley, and the imports were but 75O-
900 bushels. OF what possible aid is a
tax of 80 cents a bushel on faxseed
when we import none and exported. as
we did in 1896, of seed and cake. 387.
100000 pounds? Or tax Of 10 CENTS
a bushel on rye, of which we sent
abroad 5,328,0OO bushels and imported
ninety-fve? Or potatoes. onions and
cabbage, Of which we import mainly
the products Of the Bermudas, ma
tured at a time when the frost still
holds our soil in it's grasp.
But the Dispatch says that the
change from 30 cents to 30 per cent has
turned our barley market over to the
canadians" The only result Of that
reduction was that Canadian barley
was used in the beer breWed for the
home market instead Of being used
TO make export beer. Any maltster will
tell you that when the tax was so
cents he imported the barley, matted
1t, brewed it, exported the beer and
then went to the treasury and got
d rebate of all the tax except / pen
cent leaving the actual "protection" to
American barley growers three-tentbs
OF one cent bushel. How much did
that help them? How much did it add
to the price Of the millions Of home
grown barley sent to foreign markets 2
What fixed the price Of the domestic
barley, the little imported or the mass
exported? When was the home price
of anything ever higher than the ex-
port price, when there was a surplus
to be sent out?
Mr.. Tawney and his fellow regulators
of industry have taxed imports Of beef,
mutton and pork 2 cents a pound.
Such taxes will not benefit the farmers
producing such articles to the extent
Of the cost Of writing them into the
schedules. We exported last year Of
beef products, 5O9,462,4 ,4S4 pounds; of
pork products, 1,135 100, ,S35 pounds. and
imported none. It is possible that
there are farmers who take all this in
Eober earnest, but the joke was fully
appreciated in the ways and means
committee room, whose members
swapped winks as they wrote in these
taxes, and cracked jokes about the
"hayseeds" who were so simple as to
be caught with such cheap bait When
Will farmers cease to justify that con-
ception of them which is given shape
In the typical farmer OF the csricatur-