Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-06-16

are there too many farmers, very
widely scattered, but they are not, as
are the manufacturers, protected by
tariff duties on their products-except
on sugar and few other less impor-
tant products which we do not raise
In sufficient quantities to export large
ly. In the case Of wheat, the price is
fixed in Liverpool and it is not certain
that If our farmers should refuse to
sell and we ceased entirely to export,
that the foreign price would reach the
equivalent of dollar wheat at Chicago.
But the tariff on manufactured goods
is effective because there are compare
lively few manufacturers in any line.
because they often have monopoly
of the mines or materials used and be-
cause they usually have potential or
actual competition from foreign goods
in our home markets-which wheat
growers do not have. Because of these
and other reasons, the manufacturers
have been able to form successful
trusts and to take advantage of the
high tariff duties. They have thus
forced up the prices that the farmers
must pay for manufactured goods an
average of about 40 per cent since the
Dingley tariff bill became law The
prices Of many articles, such as barb
wire, wire nails, tin plate, window
glass, etc, have been forced up 100,
200 or 300 per cent in our markets,
or lou 70 fOr
eigners.
If tariff duties on trust products
were taken off, manufactured goods
which now sell for 81 would sell for
only co cents. The farmer could then
buy as much with his bushel Of wheat,
selling at IS cents at Chicago, as he
would get If he could force the price
of wheat up to 81, while paying the
present high trust prices for his goods.
1t is entirely feasible for the farmers,
by voting for no tariff on trust goods,
to reduce the cost of what they have
to buy. 1t is not at all feasible for
them to get together long enough to ar
tificiaIly raise the price Of wheat 80
per cent or 40 per cent. The farmers
are the backbone of protection in this
country, although, as a leading repub-
lican-Hon. Ben Butterworth-said in
1890, THE manufacturers and the
Trusts get the protection and the pro-
fits Of the tariff-the farmer gets the
husks and humbug"
As was clearly shown by the 1902
election, the workingmen Of the great
cities voted against the trusts and the
high tariff which have so greatly in
creased the cost of living, while the
farmers voted strongly In favor Of
both. Just why farmers should con-
tinue to vote for system that takes
money out Of their pockets and puts
none into them. is one of our unsolved
political problems.
II instead of agitating for impossible
dollar wheat. unless produced by
natural causes in the rest Of the world
the Equity Society win advise farmers
to discuss the tariff trust question In
their grange and other organizations
ard to vote for their own pockets all
the time. Just as the manufacturers
have always been doing. great good
win result. not only to the farmers
but TO all lablrers, mechanics ant
professional men The cost OF living
win be greatly reduced and entirely at
the expense Of the trusts. In fact,
boil, farmers and Iaborers generally
VIII Be. benefited by the greater amount
Of Manufactured goods which would
be used, il they were sold az more rea-
sonable prices. As more factory en-
ployes would be needed TO make more
goods, not only would factory wages
tend to rise. bat the farmer would
soon have a bigger home market for
his products
The doom Of protection VIII Re seal