Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-11-21
FEW ARE BENEFITED
FACTS ABOUT THE FARMER AND
THE TARIFF.
Aericulturists Are Taxed Heavily to
Support the Trusts and the Small
Number Who Are Protected
Standpat Policy.

otdnupat Fohey'
Does the tariff protect the farmer?
No. The tariff plumbers every farmer
on all that he buys, and but a few
farmers who raise sheep and a small
number that grow sugar cam and
sugar beets and a certain brand Of
wrapper tobacco are the only ones
that receive any benefit. AS the farm
ers who grow Connecticut seed wrap
per" tobacco are confined to two or
three townships in the Connecticut
protected By the tariff on wrapper to-
bacco, their number is so insignificant
as not to be worth mentioning. The
number of farms of which the prin-
and sugar beet growing, only exceeds
1 per cent. of all the farms in two
states, namely, Louisiana 1913 per cent.
and Utah 2.9 per cent, so that the
other farmers of the United States,
besides every other person, pay the
tariff tax upon sugar of 1.95 cents per
pound to substitute the Sugar trust and
these few can sugar and sugar beet
growers, and the principal share of
the profit is m%onopolized by the Sugar
trust, who control the beet sugar fac
tories and also the refineries for pro-
ducing granulated sugar, which is vir-
trJo11u fhn o01r blvd IN ,ton IN tho
United States.
But how about the sheep farmers?
According to the last census, there
were 61,605,811 sheep on farms and
ranges in 1900, of which more than
half that number, or 33,499, 500, were
on ranges in the mountain and Pacific
states, so that while the typically great
agricultural state Of Iowa had only l.
056,71S sheep, the state Of Montana
had 6,170,4S3, New Mexico 4,S99,4S7
and Wyoming 5000, 613. There were,
when the census was taken, 228,622
farms in Iowa and only 1890 in Mol
tana, 1881 in New Mexico, and but
6,095 in Wyoming. In Iowa there
were on an average only four and one
half sheep to a farm, while in Montana
there was an average of 461 sheep to
the farm and ranch. The average in
come from wool for each farmer of
Iowa, allowing him the value of all
the wool produced, was only 1870 per
farmer.
-# Hour rnrVnh Innc fJn tnt,iEf .oSnx,t tp1n
farmer? As far as the individual
farmer is concerned, it costs him ac-
cording to what he buys. If he buys
imported manufactured goods, the
tariff tax is owe 65 per cent. ON the
average. If he buys domestic goods
that are produced by a trust or com
bfne, protected by the tariff, the in
creased profit the trust or manufacture
er charges is very nearly what the
tariff tax would be on similar foreign
made goods when imported. 1t is es-
timated by the most reliable ~statisti-
clans that the increased cost of living
through the tariff, to the average fam
fly, is yer $100, of which the govern
ment receives $3.50 for tariff taxes,
and the trusts and manufacturers re-
ceive about $S4. From this must be
deducted what the farmer receives in
the increased price Of the sugar cane,
sugar beets, wrapper tobacco and wool
that he sells. How much that increase
is a be figured very closely by each
farmer, according to the profit on the
amount Of those four articles he raises.
As said before, the duty on refined
sugar 1876 cent per pound; and from
Us one-hundredths of a cent up to 1.85
cents IN unreffned sugar; on sugar
heets 1T is difficult to be exact, as the
increased price depends upon the sac
charine matter contained in the beets,
but as all the beets raised in the
United States were sold to the sugar
factories for an average of $4.3S q
ton, 1t is safe to say that the increased
profit to the growers could not have
been greater than 3S cents a ton, for
the census report shows that it cost
the factory proprietors Just over 81 a
ton to grow beets themselves.
So it comes to this, If those farmers
who raise sheep get all the wool
SHARED as profit, the average value
of which, according to the n was
about 81 per sheep, and allowing that
the lambs pay for the food and trouble
of caring for his flock, the profit
amounts to 81 a head. But to make
the sheep farmer come out even on
what the tariff costs him he must keep
a flock of at least 100 sheep, and have
no losses by disease or the ravages of
dogs or wolves. Every farmer can
thus figure out what he gains by his
sheep and loses by the tariff on what
he buys. But only a small percentage
OF farmers raise sheep or sugar beets
or Connecticut seed wrapper tobacco,
while all the farmers who do not raise
these protected products are COM
PEELED to pay the tariff tax of about
500 a year to support the trusts and
help out the few farmers who are pro
tected. Is that Republican policy a
square deal for the average farmer
and the general consumer? No one
but a Republican standpatter will say
it is.