Year: 1870

made them, despite themselves, reverers
nf the grand the beautiful, and the good.
Why our Wheat Does not go to Europe.


From the St. Louis Republican.


1t is well known that the price of Amer
lean wheat is regulated by the price in
Ensland-by the quotations in the Mark
Lane Express. The reason of this is that
we aim to ship our surplus to England,
and there it comes in competition with
Russian and Canadian wheat, and must be
sold as low as the grain from these regions.
We do not ship all our surplus to that
market, for reasons that may be traced to
the protective tariff of our own country.
Protectionists tell us that we consume the
bulk OF our wheat in this country, and it
is important therefore that we should
build up this domestic market, and let the
foreign one go. Their method of '.build-
ing up the home market is by taxing the
farmer tor the benefit of few manufac-
turers, who will, if they can, repay his
generosity by buying their wheat and -four
fiom Canadians. The idea that these
manufacturing interests which are the
beneticiaries of protection afford home
market for Americen breadstufs, or for
ever considerable proportion of them,
is one of the absurdest of all the decisions
barn of protection logic. The chief in
dustries that are thought to be worthy to
be protected at the cost Of all others are
the manufacturers of cotton, wool and
iron. The number of persons directly
engaged in these industries is estimated
at 2l5, 900. If these persons were to sub
sist on agricultural produce alone, the
cost of their subsistence, at So Il week,
would be S61 ,0S0, 900 year. If this sum
be doubled to cover the value Of indirect
consumption attributable to the industries
represented we will have Sl34, lG0, 900, as
the amount of farm produce bought and
consumed by these three leading protected
interests-or only about four and one
tenth per cent. of the gross annual aori'
cultural product, (3,2s2, 9j0, ,0o0) yielded
by the country. This shows that the
"home market for the farmer built up
for yeais at an annual cost to the country
of about eight hundred million dollars. is
of the most insignificant character.


The truth is, Europe ought to be the
market for cur surplus grain, and the
swarming millions Of that country ought
to be the consumers Of it. But we can.
not afford to send large amount of grain
to Europe, because We cannot sell as
cheuply as the Canadians and Russians
and we canuot sell as cheaply as they.
because our farmers are burdened with
protective tariffs that the Canadians and
Russians are free from. The American
farmer. with his superior intelligence,
skill, and implements Of tillage, and cheap
lands, ought to, and, in truth can raise
grain at cheaper rates than any other
farmer in the world but the projections
lists will not allow him to do it. They
force him TO pay a tax on the lumber and
nails in his house. stable and barn: a tax
on the leather in his harness, on his
plows, hoes, harrows, reaper and thresher;
a tax on the wagon he hauls his grain to
the country market in and an enormous
tax on the rails, cars and engine of the
road over which it is carried to the city
market. Thus, every bushel of wheat
.hat he raises has to pay at least one half
of its cost price, in taxes, and cannot con-
saquently go to Europe and compete with
Russian wheat that is exempt fr.m all
these taxes. In this enumeration of the
burdens imposed on the American farmer
we'haye taken no account of tax on the
labor employed, which enters SO largely
into the ploblem. Farmers complain
universally and bitterly that labor is so
high they cannot afford to employ it--and
the complaint is well founded. There was
scarcely single Iowa wheat raiser who
hired labor last year, who did not ccme
out behind, in his business. And vet the
laborer cannot work for lower wages. He,
too, is heavily taxed for the protection of
the favored industries at the east: he is
taxed on every stitch Of clothes on his
body, on the hat on his head and the
shoes on his feet. All those taxes (only
one-ilth Of which goes to the government
while four iilths go to the "home manu-,
facturers enter into the cost of Iowa
wheat, or of Illinois corn. Thus Tie effect
of protection upon the farmer is to exact
from him one half the cost of his wheat
in tribute to favored monopelists, and to
debar him from the market where he could
get good price for it.


The Massachusetts, House Of Repre-
sentatives, have rejected the Ten, Hour
Labor bill--l73 to SO.


The Davenport Brothers performances
are exposed in every city they exhibit, but
they continue their travels, and compla-
Gently give their exhibitions rs heretofore.


Partisan gourmanls ate 2,75S horses
last year.


Three Cinnamon are preparing to
enter upon a course Of study at
Harvard.