12 



age of 59,375, 000 per annum. And confronting these startling facts, 

 are we to be told Western Europe will take our surplus and that we 

 can safely destroy our manufacturing industries and change their op- 

 eratives to producers from being consumers? 



I have shown you that 30 per cent, engaged in agriculture will sup- 

 ply themselves and the balance of the population, and that we now 

 have 44 per cent. 14 per cent, above the required number now and 

 we have a large overproduction. Take but 10 per cent, from manu- 

 factures, 270,742 the present production per capita in agriculture is 

 about $400 and the result is an increase of our present surplus of 

 $108,296,800. 



Seriously, I ask gentlemen on the other side, would you make this 

 an agricultural country ? Then please give us some of the results from 

 your standpoint. If we were all farmers, all producers of farm 

 products; if we had been, say, for the last twenty-five years, and both 

 the emigration to this country and the natural increase of the popula- 

 tion had gone to the land for support, what price would these products 

 now bring, and where would they market them? 



And, Mr. Chairman, now I come to the humorous, ridiculous, or de- 

 ceptive illustrations, depending upon the talent of the inventor, to con- 

 vince the farmer that he is being robbed in the high price he is com- 

 pelled to pay for the articles he consumes, and Mr. Sidney Smith's (I 

 think'he was the author) story of taxation has been dished up in a hun- 

 dred different forms, and with countless variations, to illustrate the 

 exactions and robberies of our present tariff system. 



Gentlemen have forgotten that while agriculture has made the ad- 

 vance I have described so have the other industries, and with this 

 prosperity knowledge has been disseminated, education has been ex- 

 tended, the press has prospered, books have been written, the census 

 has been taken, statistics published, and thought quickened, deepened, 

 and broadened with all the people at least, sir, with all the people I 

 have much knowledge of in this country; certainly in all those com- 

 munities where the twin and dependent industries farming and manu- 

 facturing both thrive without jealousies, and where thrift is the rule 

 they have grown rich. The people have grown rich not the few, as I 

 wilLsoon show, but all the people and property has brought knowledge 

 and education, dispelled prejudice and ignorance, and you face an audi- 

 ence that will trip you if you make a single mistake. 



I propose to make a comparison of prices for 18(30 with those of 1880 

 of those goods farmers consume, and you will bear in mind I have taken 

 my prices from an Eastern market, to which for other sections trans- 

 portation should be added, and, unless I made the exception, the re- 

 tailer's profit, and I assume this profit and transportation to be the 

 same for both years. 



In 1860 John and James Bobson, of Philadelphia, and for several 

 years prior and subsequent to that year, were among the largest manu- 

 facturers of blankets and woolen goods in the United States. From 

 their books of original entry I am furnished the following list of aver- 

 age prices for blankets during the years 1858, 1859, and 1860 compared 

 with the average prices prevailing in 1882 and 1883 for like quality: 



I860 ... $2.00, $2.50, $2.25 , $3.50, $3.75, 85.00, S7.50, 88.00, 810.00, 813.00 



1883 81.25, $1.80, $1.62fc, 82.35, $3.20, $3.75, $5.50, $5.60, 87.25, $8.50 



The above includes the entire line of white blankets from the lowest 

 to the best grades per pair, standard make of what are known as plain 

 Norway blankets. The figures show a decline of 30 pe/ cent, to 60 per 



