Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-03-30
DinRiey aud the Farmer.

| y Kansas man OF lHQulIIHS Turn VI
mind wants TO know: rs the tariH OF
any benefit to our agricultural inter
ests? If so. in what way?
To these inquiries the st. Louis Re
public has made a logical reply:
If this Kansas man can think OF
any of our most important agricultural
products that are imported in any con-
siderable quantities he will have an
affirmative answer to his question. Oth
| erwise he must answer himself in the
negative. Sugar and wool are about
! the only product of American agrlcul-
ture that are largely imported. and in
the south the cultivation of rice Is en-
: croaching upon the sugar industry.
Moreover. the Dlngley diferentlal be-
tween raw and refined sugars faVorS
the sugar trust more than ii does tht
sugar planter. The tariff on tropical
fruits is of some benefit TO the orange
growers Of Florida and to the truck
farmers of southwest Texas. but the
areas within the United States suited
to the tropical fruit industry are 100
limited to count for much III our gen
eral scheme of agricultural economy
Our agricultural interests. as whole
suffer vastly more through the tribute
they pay To the protected manutactur
ers of wooden goods than they benefit
by the protective tariff on raw WOOL.
and the beef trust gets most or the
benefit from the tariff on hides.
Coffee. tea, and other agricultural
products which we import are mostly
such as are not grown in this country.
4 Of
agriculture-wheat,c cotton, corn. nay,
beef. pork-are incapable of tarln pro
lection because we make more of them
than we need, and desire TO export
rather than import them. 1t Is THESE
great products which bear the heaviest
burden of the Dingley tariff, which en-
riches only the industrial trusts. More
over. the Dingley tariff excluding for
eign goods from our markets angers
foreign nations. and they are every
where retaliating by determinations
against our agricultural products.
A few weeks ago Italy raised its tar
if on flour. Spain has just laid addi-
tional tariff taxes on importations of
-four. wheat and corn, along with some
other articles she has been getting
from the United States. The latest
bulletin of consular reports informs us
that Colombia has recently raised its
tariff on flour from about Sl2 a barrel
to more than $40 a barrel. Germany.
as everybody knows, threatens vicious
tariff war on our wheat flour, beef
and pork unless we make tariff conces-
sions TO her within the next 10 months.
The Dingley tariff has not even full
filed the republican promise of home
markets for farm produce. On the
contrary. ii has helped the trusts to
suppress local manufacturing indus
tries in the neighborhOod of the farms
and TO concentrate their industries in
distant cities.
A lower tariff would do more for
the home market by compelling the
factories TO come closer to the farms,
where food and raw material are
cheaper. Manufactured goods can be
produced more cheaply in the west
and south than in the northeast. Tar
iff rates half or three-quarters as high
as those of the Dingley act would give
protection enough to most western
and southern industries. while it might
compel many establishments in the
east TO move to the regions of cheaper
production
The relations of the western farmer
to the Dingley tariff were well inter
preted by a dream of the late Scott
Wile. of Illinois. He dreamed that hel
died and went on visit to hell While
Satan was showing him around he no.
ticed some sinners hung up by the
they?" asked Wike. Those fellows"
replied Satan. "are hung up there to
kiln dry. They are western farmers
who vote all the time for the republi- |
can party and the protective tariff |
They are too green to burn