The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-08-18
WHITE STOOD BY THE FARMERS

Weu up 10 the front as a ready de-
batter and resourceful in repartee,
made a speech in the house July II,
on the Fordney tariff bill, which has
become a law. 1t was a real speech
that was listened to with interest by
a good house with print
matter not desired to be heard. Mr.
White was frequently interrupted but
he had an apt reply for every inter
locutor. The burden of his talk was
protection for the American farmer,
as necessary as protection for our
manufacturing industries. We can
quote only fragments of his able ad-
dress, as found in the Congressional
Record. After discussing what had
been the effect of protection to manu-
factures of fifty years, he said:
''In the year ending June 80, 1920,
we imported 100000 in, value
of agricultural products. This fact
furnishes in a great measure the ex-
planation for the condition of Amer
lean agriculture today.
Gentlemen, am in favor of a
stiff duty on all the products of the
soil of America, where that soil is
adapted to their cultivation and pro-
! ductiOn in quantities to supply the
| demand fully or even approximately.
And why? First, the American
markets are as essential to the pros
perity of agriculture as that prosper
ity is essential to the prosperity of
! other industries. For a hundred years
! the manufacturer has been insistent
| that he have protection; and with the
exception of a few brief periods it
has been given him without stint
and as a result manufacturing has
! prOspered. Its investments are meas
J ured in billions. 1t is firmly estab-
lished, and its products find a mar
ket with 11O,OOO,OOO of the most
prosperous people in the world; and
40,O0O,O0O of these customers are on
the farms of the United States. And
you have had no better customers in
normal times for a hundred years
than the rural population They are
free spenders in all prosperous per-
iods.
But l warn you, you men of the
East, when these 4O,OOO,OOO dwellers
on the farms of America shall be
sunk in adversely, their business de-
| DPaScad and ,.1inaJ +bo;,. ob;I;.,. -
freely purchase and pay for the pro-
ducts of your industries gone-I
warn you, 1 say, the fire in your fur
naces will go out and the hum of
your spindles will relapse into silence.
'DO gentlemen ask me how may
the strength of agriculture be pre-
served? How may its prosperity be
assured? 1 answer unequivocally
that in large degree it may be done,
it can be done, by placing a duty on
! impOrtations of agricultural products
in order to stabilize the products of
the American farm. That we should
do this is highly desirable from the
viewpoint of the interest the public
! has IN a constant, unfiuctuating sup
| ply of food and clothing for all the
! people of this country.
ga gentleman asks me, will the
! placing of a duty of 25 cents per
! bushel on wheat raise the price of
wheat at once in the amount of 20
cents per bushel?' 1 have not said
! so; do not say so; but 1 do say that
If you place on foreign wheat duty
of % or 80 cents per bushel-I think
| it should be 35 cents-you thereby
say to the American farmer, we to
/ that extent guarantee to you the
American market, and your compet-
itors in Canada, Argentina, or any
other country, however cheap may be
their land, their labor, or their trans
| portation, shall not be allowed to
come here and despoil you of your
market" And we also thereby say
to the American people, we will
stabilize the supply of bread by en-
couraging the American farmer to
raise wheat He will by this guar
anty know that he may proceed con-
fidently. He may by rotation\of crops
by fertilization of his land, by care
ful selection of seed, increase pro-
duction, with the assurance that he
will be allowed to sell in a protected
market.
81 can only briefly state that there
are many accidents to which his in
vestment is exposed. The producer
of grain, for instance, can not esti-
mate even with approximate accur-
acy the cost of a busheI of wheat