New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-08-19
PROTECTION FOR FARMERS
Mr.. ChamberLain's appeal to 4gr7-
cultural Interests.
London, August D.

The veteran in his eighty-seventh year. was the
only survivor of the old guard of Tory Protef-
| tonists who under the leadership OF Lol'
George Bentinck ana Mr.. Disraeli. resisted the
onset of the Peelites and the Cobdenites anu
! never surrendered their beliefs. From his seat
| in the riding school he could look back Sixty
years and recall the strenuous protest, which as
| Lord John Manners he had made against Mr..
| Cobden's doctrines; and he could console him
| self with the reflection that his own forecasts
| had borne the tests of time and experience more
! successfully than the predictions of the leaders
| of the Free Trade cause. The whirlg1g OF time
had brought a strange fantastic revolution. This
! consistent Protectionist, who had shaken MS
head incredulously when Golden had demon
strated that under Free Trade the production or
wheat would increase in England, that its price
would never drop below 40 shillings quarter
! that the land would not go out OF cultivation
! and that there would not be vacuum OF food
supply to be filed from foreign countries, couiu
say at last that he had been right from the out
! set. He could also look on while Mr. CharnDer-
lain who had been one of the most uncompro-
| missing Free Traders addressed an immense
gathering of farmers and agricultural laporers'
| and virtually repeated many of LORD George
! Bentincks protectionist arguments or 1910.
What Mr. Chamberlain told his audience IN the
| Duke of Portlands riding school was that Eng
ush agriculture had virtually been destroyer
| under Free Trade. For thirty years AFTER Ihe
| abolition of the Corn laws no substantial halih
| had been done, for the great West in America
| had not been cultivated, and there was no large
! in,nortation of foreign products into England;
! hut during the last thirty years there had oeeh
| n shrinkage of 3OOOOO0 acres in wheat ana an
! other of 10000 acres in green crops; an ehor-
| nous amount of land had reverted TO pasturase'
the dmnution of stock had been 2oooooo heau'
the reduction of farming capital had been S-oo'-
900 600; and the number of cultlVators Oh INC
soil had declined 100000 IN thirty years-l.oV'-
600 IN fifty years. Having shown by these hs-
ures that neither farmers nor agricultural la
borers had prospered under Free Trade. ne LOOK
up a series of Cobdente predictions ana con-
| trasted promise with reality. Mr.. CobdeH hao
nredicted that the repeal Of the Corn laws would
stimulate the demand for agricultural LABOR Out
under Free Trade one-half of that class OF WORK
men had been thrown out Of employment ie
had said the farmers profits would not be al
fected that they would never have less imam ~
shillings a quarter and that they would always
have a natural protection OF something like los'
Cd a quarter in the cost OF freight anu runs
port; but the price under Free Trade mad gone
dou, IN DC shIllings a quarter; wheat raising III
England had ceased 10 be profitable, ana the
ocean charges had come down from shilingS 10
hence The apostle OF Free Trade had PROMISED
that not an acre should go out OF cuItlNal'o"'
and that there should be more employment III
the country as well IN the town; and atter
half century OF unrestricted trading the iahu
had ceased 10 be titled and half the number OF
cultivators had either moved into towns aredoy
overcrovded and unsantary. or they had emil
grated from England or they were In the work
house.
Mr. Chamberlain's remedy for agricultural &C.
nression is n two shilling duty on wheat, barley
oats. rye and every other foodstun except
maize He might have quoted this apposite pas
saga from, one az Mr. Cobden's early essays on
America: by repeating the present Corn laws
and putting only q hxed duty OF such an amount
as would bring the greatest revenue winch pFoo-
ably r,ieht he found 10 be two shillings a quar-
fer. such an impulse would be given to tho man
uracturer7 of this country. while 50 great
eboc,- WOULD be experienced by our rivals from
tho o,,g,oented price OF food all over the world
that \ rapid growth OF wealth and an increase OF
numbers must take place throughout the coal
and iron districts OF England. wales ana Scot
land" Mr.. Golden repudiated this we" at
later period and even when he wrote the passage
be was careful 10 put in this reservation III
brackets: I'VE object no more 10 a tax on corn
than on tea or sugar. for the purpose OF revenue
b,,t we oppose q protective duty. 1t is called
Mr. Chamberlain. in reverting TO what Mr.. Cob
den had once considered moderate revenue
not disguise the protective character OF his pro-
no,aIs He hopes 10 restore the milling OF
wheat as a national industry by means of duty
on -four and to provide additional employment
for Iaborers not only in the great ports but also
I'm the country towns, and he is confident that by
keeping at home all the bran and the o1al. ana
| nv cheapening feeding stuffs. he Will enable
small farmers and especially allotment holders
TO have more stock, 10 increase their dairying
] ar.Iay or a.
son he Is unwilling 10 take maize off the free list
since II "a an important feeding stuff but he is
prepared to help small farmers by putting duty
| Of :. per cent on meat. dairy produce. cheese.
| butter poultry, eggs and vegetables. BY these
! measures he hopes to render farming In England
more profitable than II is at present. and TO pro-
| vide steadic- employment for agricultural la
| borers; and at the same time he contends that
the cost of living for the ordinary consumer will
not be increased.
While Mr.. Chamberlain talked to his agricult-
ural audience in the old fashioned Protectionist
way the means which he proposed were hardly
! more than low revenue duties. 1t is doubtful If
he has convinced either Mr.. Chaplin Sir
| Howard Vincent that the good old milling In
dustry can be restored and small farming
verted into a source OF wealth by a corn duty of
two shillings and by per cent schedule on
meat, dairy produce, eggs and vegetables The
duties are too low to impart any impetus to agrl-
cultural Industries, to reclaim land from pas
turage or to divert any considerable portion Of
the population from the manufacturing towns to
| the open fields. When he admitted that In
! France the duties foodstuffs were six times
as high as those which he proposed for England
and that the duties meat were twice as high,