The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-12
BUYS MOST OF
HIS SUPPLIES HERE

: Moreover, the American manufactures
purchases his farm supplies almost ex-
eluSlVely In his own country. Nine-tenthS
of all the, raw materials of every kind
and description consumed in American
manufactures are of American produc-
.lon; me manufacturing establishments
tend steadily to migrate into the heart of
the great agricultural districts. The CEN
Ter or che manufacturing industry of 1900
was near the middle, of Ohio, and it is
moving westward at the rate of about
thirty miles in every decade: and this
movement is Invariably accompanied by
a marked Increase in the value of farm
ton between new farm lands and old
farm lands, tend here and there to OBJ
scure what is happening; but it is as GER
tam as the operation of any economic law.
tnat IN the country as whole, farm val
-ues will continue to increase as the part
TSh1p between manufacturer and farm
.er grows more intimate through further
advance OF industrial science. The Amer
lean manufacturer never could have placed
this nation at the head of the manufac-
turing nations of the world if he had not
had behind him, securing him every va
riety. of raw material, the exhaustless re-
sources of the American farm, developed
by the Skill and the enterprise of intel
lgent and educated American farmers.
On the other hand, the debt of the farm
ers to the manufacturers is equally heavy,
and. the future of American agriculture
is bound up, in the future of American
mn manu-, The two industries have
government so closely interviewer, so.
mutually Independent, that neither can
hope to maintain itself at the high water
mark of progress without the other What
ever makes to the advantage of one is
equally to the. advantage of the other
SO 1t is as between the capitalist and
the Wage-worker. Here and there there
may be an unequal sharing as between the
two in the benefits that have come by
protection; but benefits have come to
both; and a reversal in policy would
mean damage to both; and while the dam
age. would be heavy to all, it would be
heaviest, and it would fall soonest upon
those Who are paid in the form of wages
each week OF each month for that weeks
or that months work.
Conditions change and the laws must
be modified from time to time to fit new
sxigencies.- But the genuine underlying
principle of protection as it has been en-
bodied in all but one Of the American
tariff laws for the. last forty years, has
worked out results so beneficent so even
alike, to- farmers and capitalists and work.
imgmen. to commerce and trade of every
kind, that the American people, if they
show their usual practical business sense,
will insist that when these laws are modi-
fled they will be modified with the utmost
and not the enemies of the protective
system. they cannot afford to trust the
modification to those who treat protec-
ton and robbery as synonymous terms.
In closing what have to say about the
system of promoting American industry
let me add word of cordial agreement
with the policy of in some way including
within its benefits, by appropriate legis-
IaCon, the American merchant marine.
1t is not creditable to us as nation that
our great export and import trade should
be well nigh exclusively in the hands of
foreigners.