The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-03-21
FARMERS LARGE SHARE.
Remarkable Rfxe in Value of Agri
cultural Products.

CULTURAL Products.
Believers in the policy of protection
have long had to combat the absurd
but obstinate assumption that the farm
ers of the country are benefited in
Purely consequential way by the impo-
: tion of tariffs on foreign manufac-
lures and produce. 1t is singular that
even TO this day. in the face of such
conclusive proof TO the contrary. there
should be found those ready to take the
affirmative side of this free trade
proposition, made ridiculous as 1t mas
been by the history Of our own times.
True, less is heard of it than in former
years, but so long as prejudice and ig-
norance endure its abandonment may
not be looked for.
The Department of Agriculture has
recently thrown some light on the level
OF prices obtaining under tariff de-
signed for revenue only ard genu-
iDely protective tariff. For the pur-
pose of making comparison when
will be valuable for illustrative pur-
poses, The Capital takes the figures
just issued by the department and puts
them side by side with the Orange
Judd Farmer" live stock census OF II
decade ago. The results are startling.
For instance:
Jan. |, 1897 (under the Wilson-Gor-
man Democratic tariff the average
value of horses in the United States
was S33. 65 per head. Today, II the
Department OF Agriculture is rightly
Informed, that value is SS3.51. Under
the Dingley tariff the American horse
has more than doubled in value. Isn't
this worth something to the farmer, es-
pecially when it is considered that
there are nearly 20,000,OO0 horses in
the country, worth almost two billion
of dollars?
Secretary Wilson's boys say that the
value of the American milch cow has
increased during the past ten or twelve
years 80 per cent. The average heifer
sold for $21 and SD head under our
last tariff tinkeriiIg experiment. Now
tla. average price is S3l per head, and
the mich COWS of the country are
worth hundred millions of dollars
more than those we had during low
tariff times. Does this increase mean
anything to the farmer, or is it purely
benevolent superstition?
Again, in January, 1896, in the very
heydey of n-Gormanism, sheep
were going begging at SLIGO a head
Now, under a protective tariff which
docs not benefit the farmer" the aver
age price Of sheep is So 81. At least
that is what the Agricultural Depart
ment says. If anybody wants to quar-
rel with the figures as indicative Of too
great prosperity for the farmers who
are being numerically robbed by the
tariff, let him go to headquarters.
TIE contrast In the price of hogs
for 1897 and 1907 makes mighty inter-
esting reading for the tariff student,
too. Jan. /. 1897. the average porker
sold for $4.13 Secretary Wilson says
that the average price on the 1st of last
January was 81 90, and it is higher
today than it was a month and half
ago. In the past ten years the Amer
lean hog has almost doubled In value.
The increase has come under protection
and as direct result of protection. 1t
means millions to the farmer. 1t means
college educations, pianos and furnaces
and two-seated Surveys and gasoline
engines and electric lights and hot and
cold water for bathrooms-every con-
venierce and comfort and luxury for
the farmer and his family. All this
under the DIngley law. which "oper-
ates 10 enrich the few and makes the
farmer pay tribute TO the -nonopolist."
Bah.
The farmer who keeps his milk and
butter checks and his hog and steer re-
oe'pts is not fooled. A ten-year mem
DRY is good thing to have about the
place, too.-Des Moines Capital"