Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-10-12
is THE FARMER KICKING?

1t has been reiterated, with con-
siderable fluency and abandon, that
the American farmer has been bum
koed by the republican party, that
! his condition is in fact no better be-
cause of the tariff or any other con-
gressional enactment than it would
be if the democratic party were in
power and had placed in operation
tariff ripped open from top to
! bottom. 1t is easy to generalize in
the discussion of the effect of tariffs
upon any one class of our people,
but it is a different thing to es-
tablish by cold figures the truth of
a generality directed against the
policy of protection, says the Man
! chester Press. 1t is next to impos-
sible, moreover, to convince the
! Iowa farmer that he is in a bad way
because of a tariff. If he buys his
own butter and eggs and poultry
and milk and meat, he pays more for
1T than he did few years ago, it is
true, but he finds that he can buy
clothing and shoes and dry goods
just about as cheap as ever. He is
also able to point the critic to the
following schedule, showing the ad-
vance in prices since March, 1896,
of the products he has to sell:
|
Wheat advanced SS.1 per cent.
Oats advanced 1922 per cent.
Rye advanced III per cent
Barley advanced 1868 per cent.
Hay advanced 49.5 per cent.
Potatoes advanced 1871 per cent
Flaxseed advanced 142.4 per cent.
Fat cattle advanced 92.7 per cent
Fat hogs advanced 172 per cent.
Eggs advanced 1913 per cent.
Dairy butter advanced 57.3 per
cent.
These are the figures of the
and are indisputably correct. What
is there in them that should induce
the farmer to become excited over
the tariff or to wean him away from
the doctrine of protection? How
much longer is the Iowa farmer
going to support the efforts of theo-
rists to bring about further tariff
reductions, with the certainty that
the result will be to cut the prices
of his own products? Isn't it about
time for the farmer to make an in
telligent study of tariff facts for
himself, without relying upon the
assertions of politicians and office
seekers?
Let us put it another way. Do
you know, Mr.. Farmer, how many
pounds of coffee, for instance, a
300-pound hog would buy in March.
1910, as compared with March,
1895, when the last democratic ia
riff was in operation. Such a pork
er would exchange in 1896 for 81
pounds of Rio coffee, at wholesale,
while in 1910 it would exchange for
361 pounds.
IT would buy 669 pounds of gran
ulated sugar last March, compared |
with 244 pounds in March, 1895.
1t would buy &c yards of Brussels
carpet last March, compared with II
yards in 1895.
1t would buy IL pairs of mems
vici kid shoes last March compared
with pairs in 1896.
1t would buy 1866 pounds of
barbed wire last March, compared
with 600 pounds in 1896.
1t would buy 5000 cypress
shingles last March, as compared
with $500 in 1895.
And so on, ad infnitum through
the entire list of commodities which |
the farmer uses. Well may he ask |
what does all this kick about the
higher cost of living amount to,
when / am getting twice as much
for my produce and can exchange it |
for more than twice it's value in
commodities than was the case
few years ago, when the democratic
party was in power.
We repeat-it is going to be a
hard task to get the Iowa farmer
up in arms over the tariff question.
If he has an eye to his pocketbook,
he will LET wall annnnh nlnno