Charlevoix county herald., 1907-03-30
THE FARMERS LARGE SHARE.
Remarkable Rise in Value Of Agricul.
turai Products in Ten Years.


Believers in the policy of protection
have long had to combat the absurd
but obstinate assumption that the
farmers of the country are benefited
In a purely inconsequential way by
the imposition of tariffs on foreign
manufactures and produce. 1t is sin
gular 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 ridic-
ulous as 1t has been by the history
OF our own times. True, less is heard
OF 1t than in former years, but so
long as prejudice and ignorance en-
dure its abandonment may not be
looked for.
The department of agriculture has
recently thrown some light on the
level of prices obtaining under a tariff
designed for revenue only" and a
genuinely protective tariff. For the
purpose of making comparison
which will be valuable for illustrative
purposes, The Capital takes the fig
ures just issued by the department
and puts them side by side with the
Orange Judd Farmer live stock cen
sus of decade ago. The results are
startling. For instance:
January l, 1897 (under the Wilson
German Democratic tariff the average
value OF horses in the United States
was 1885 per head. To-day, If the
department of agriculture is rightly
informed, that value is $S3.51. Under
the Dingley tariff the American horse
has more than doubled in value.
Isn't this worth something to the
farmer, especially when it is consid-
cred that there are nearly 20,000,000
horses in the country, worth almost
two billions of dollars?
Secretary Wilson's boys say that
the value of the American mich COW
has increased during the past ten or
IL years SO per cent The average
heifer sold for $21 and $22 head un-
der our last tariff tinkering expert
ment Now the average price is $31
per head. and the mich cows of the
country are worth a hundred millions
of dollars more than those We had
during low tariff times. Does this in
crease mean anything to the farmer,
or is it a purely benevolent suppose
ton?
Again, in January, 1896, in the very
heyday of Wilson-Gorman, sheep were
going begging at $l60 a head. Now,
under a protective tariff which does
not benefit the farmer" the average
price of sheep is 1884. At least that
is what the agricultural department
says. If anybody wants to quarrel
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.
The contrast in the price of hogs
for 1897 and 1907 makes mighty inter
esting reading for the tariff student,
too. January |. 1897, the average
porker sold for $4.13. Secretary Will
son says that the average price on
the first of last January was 1852.
and it is higher to-day than it was
month and half ago. In the past
ten years the American hog has al
most doubled in value. The increase
has come under protection and as
direct result of protection. 1t means
millions to the farmer 1t means col
lege educations, pianos and furnaces
and two:seated surveys and gasoline
engines and electric lights and hot
and cold water and bath rooms
every convenience and comfort and
luxury for the farmer and his family.
All this under the Dingley law, which
operates to enrich the few and
makes the farmer pay tribute to the
monOpolist." Bah.
The farmer who keeps his milk and
butter checks and his hog and steer
receipts is not fooled. A ten-year
memory is good thing to have about
the place, too.-Des Moines Capital