The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-10-11
PROSPERITY
FOR FARMERS
HOW TT HAS BEEN BROUGHT ABOUT
BY .THE REPUBLICAN POLICY
OF PROTECTION.
STATISTICS IN EVIDENCE
Every Article Produced by the
Farmer Is FayorabIy Affected
by Protective Legislation.

The farmer has shared with the BUSH
ness man, the manufacturer and his
workmen, the railways and their en-
ployes, and the various classes Of our
citizens, in the general prosperity fol-
lowing the return to the tariff policy OF
protection. His markets have increased
both at home and abroad and with this
increase have come advanced prices for
what he sells and advanced value OF
that which he retains. Not only do. the
figures of exports show a marked in
crease in the receipts from abroad, but
in the home market, by far the most
important to the farmer, prices have
advanced, consumption and demand in
creased, and with these has come pros
perity to this greatest class of produe-
ers.
On all farm products the rate of duty
was reduced by the Wilson tariff, ana
in most cases that of the Mckinley tar
iff was restored by the Dingley tariff.
This increase has had it's effect in
checking the Importation of manufac-
tured articles of farm production, and
thus has saved to the farmers a share
of the home market.
Decreased Importation of Farm
Products.
There was marked decrease in the
Importation of farm products immedi-
ately following the re peal of the Wilson
! law, which occurred in July, 1897, the
imports of the year ending June 30,
! 1897, having thus come entirely under
the Wilson act. The total imports OF
agricultural products, as classified by
the Department of Agriculture, were, in
the fiscal year 1897, $40O, 81 ,4ss; in 1898,
under the Dingley law, they dropped to
1914, 291, 1885, and in 1889 were 1855, 514 ss1.
This gives an average reduction Of over
$60,OOO,000 a year in agricultural inn
ports in 1898 and 1899, as compared with
1897.
A Lesson From Eggs.
Many single incidents m ght be cited
classes Of articles, but as single ex-
ample will be all that is required for
this purpose, the comparatively unim.
portant item of eggs is selected. Fig
ures of the Bureau Of Statistics show
that prior to the enactment of the Nc
Kinley law, which placed duty upon
eggs entering into the United States
| from abroad, the value of the importa-
tons ranged from two million to two
and a half million dollars per annum.
being, in the year 1899, s2,41Ss26, and in
the year 1890, $2,0s4,912. Immediately
following the enactment of that law the
year 1894, the last year of the Mckinley
law, amounted to only s199,536 or about
! 10 per cent of the average in the years
preceding it's enactment
The Wilson law. however. reduced the
duty on eggs from cents to- cents per
dozen, and in 1895, the first year of it's
operation, the importations increased to
1924, 1913 in value, following the general
depression in 1S96-1S97. Thu Dingley
law restored the rate Of duty to cents
per dozen. and In 1898 the value of i'm
portations again dropped to sS07S. and
in the fiscal year of 1900, averaged
about $1,700 per month, or a. trifie over
$4,000 per year, as against an average
/ of over 100000 per annum before a
, duty was placed against this article o.
K foreign production. This clearly shows
! that protection keeps the home market
for the American farmer.
The Home Market Under Protection
depression which Immediately followed
it, the amount of wheat retained for
consumption in the United States was
about six bushels per capita. On some
occa sions 1T exceeded that figure, being
in 1888 and 1885, more than six and one
half bushels per capita, and seldom fall
ing below five and one-half bushels In
the year 1893, however, during the de-
preston which Immediately followed
the election of Democratic president
and free trade congress, the per capt.
ia wheat consumption fell to 4S5 BUSH
els. in 1894, to S41 bushels, and in 1897
was 1888 bushels. Immediately follow
ing the repeal Of the Wilson tariff there
was marked increase in the per capt.
ia consumption, and in 1899 it had again
about reached it's nomal figure, being
for that year, 5.95 bushels per capita.
Another example may be found in the
amount of cotton retained for consump-
ton under protective and low tariffs,
respectively. In the years 1891 and 1899
the amount Of domestic cotton retained
for consumption was. respectively, %
and "a pounds Fer capita, while in 1898
1t fell to II pounds per capita. In 1924
it was 16 pounds, and in 1895 and 1897,
Is IL pounds, increasing, however in
1898, under protection to 25.2 pounds,
and in 1899 to 21.7 pounds or so per cent
more than the average during the en-.
tire Democratic free-trade term from
1893 to 1897.
Sheep and Wool Values Reduced.
Take the single item of WOOL The
Wilson law gave the country in the
item of wool an example of the effect
of genuine, Simon-pu Democratic free
trade 1t was. to the free-trade mind,
the one redeeming feature of that act,
whose feeble attempt at retaining a
shadow Of protection was denounced as
an evidence of party perfidy and dis
honor" Under that act, importations
of foreign wool, which had never but
once reached so much as $50, 1000, 900
pounds. were, in the first year, moro