

CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



201 



We exported 69,000,000 bushels of corn last 

 year and we imported into this country 2,388 

 bushels, an amount, we are told, that imperils 

 the market of those who raise 2,000,000,000 

 bushels. Why, it could all be raised in Texas 

 by one farmer on 50 acres of ground. That corn 

 came from Mexico into New Mexico, Arizona, 

 and Texas, along the border, and if you cut it 

 out you can not supply a single bushel of it from 

 any of the corn-producing parts of the country, 

 because the cost of transportation would be so 

 great that they can not import it ; and if they 

 can not get this I suppose they can eat grass and 

 go naked. 



' Why, sir. we can not supply that corn from 

 Texas, because the transportation from the set- 

 tled part of the State to the boundaries on the 

 Rio Grande would cost too much, and this mar- 

 ket is supplied by the little contiguous farms 

 lying along the Rio Grande and along the border 

 of Mexico, whence it is brought into our coun- 

 try. But this is all to be stopped. And why ? 

 Oh, but you are proposing to protect the farmer 

 and dissipate all his alarm. You are going to 

 stretch your arms around him and pour sweet 

 words of comfort into his ears. You are going 

 to tell him that he shall not be disturbed by the 

 foreign pauper, who shall not be allowed to bring 

 in pauper rye to compete with him. 



' How much rye did we import last year ? Six- 

 teen bushels ! It could all have been raised on 

 a turnip patch. What did it cost ? It cost in 

 Germany, whence it came, $1.50 a bushel ; while 

 the rye that we exported from this country cost 

 57 cents a bushel, and we exported 287,252 

 bushels. The Republican party thinks that 

 when a farmer goes outside of this country and 

 buys some improved wheat and rye to better his 

 crop he is moved and instigated by the devil ; 

 and he is to be rebuked for his temerity in the 

 Capitol of the nation. He ought to have gone 

 and bought rye that was not worth more than 

 two bits a bushel from somebody in this coun- 

 try, because it was American rye and covered by 

 the flag of the country. 



" But, Mr. Chairman, when we stand in the 

 midst of this great overshadowing peril to the 

 farmer ; when we review item by item the steps 

 which have been planned for his redemption, I 

 must confess that I owe a tribute to the majority 

 of the Ways and Means Committee for one bold, 

 audacious, gallant move which strikes the key 

 note of agricultural emancipation. Whatever 

 else they have left undone, they have rescued 

 one great American industry. When they saw 

 the enemy in force at the gates they cried to the 

 guard : ' Raise the drawbridge and let the port- 

 cullis fall and save the cabbage patch.' 



" They have placed a protective duty of three 

 cents a head on the great American cabbage, and 

 that is to be a panacea for all the farmer's ills. 

 All fears are now dispelled and the American 

 farmer can now stand in the midst of his cab- 

 bage patch and defy ' the world, the flesh, and 

 the devil.' 



" Now, let us come to the real question, what 

 is necessary to protect our farmers ; for let me 

 say to you in all frankness, my friends, they are 

 not going to be fooled any longer. They are 

 sounding their notes of distress, their eyes are 

 opening, and you must try something more sub- 



stantial than amusing them with toys. They are 

 beginning to understand that they have not mar- 

 kets sufficient for their products at home, and 

 you interdict them from going to foreign mar- 

 kets. 



" Some days ago the question was asked, ' What 

 law is there on the statute book that prevents the 

 farmer from exporting his products 1 ' I say that 

 the tariff law approved March 3, 1883, does. For 

 years we have had high duties, and as they are 

 in the main specific, as the cost of production 

 goes down the tariff goes up, and importation 

 falls off, and that shuts off exportation. 



" Mr. Chairman, there is another new feature 

 in this most extraordinary bill. Our friends 

 have started the policy of giving a bounty on 

 production. Where did they get the money 

 which they dispense with such lavish prodigali- 

 ty? Is it from their own pockets? Is it their 

 own money? Did they make it by their own 

 labor? How many drops of sweat have they 

 poured out over these dollars that they propose 

 to take by the million from the Treasury and 

 throw at the feet of their favorites ? Where did 

 it come from ? It was extorted from the pockets 

 of the poor laboring people of the country by ex- 

 cessive rates of taxation which they have not 

 hesitated to still further advance. And they now 

 give $7,000,000 as a bounty for the production of 

 sugar. 



" Well, the people of this country who are rais- 

 ing corn and cotton and wheat and oats and 

 hogs and beeves will all step up to the counter 

 and say : ' We will take sugar in ours, too.' I 

 want to see you give this bounty, and when you 

 do you will slip away from it worse than you did 

 from hides; I want to see you give it, and if the 

 American people do not take the hides off you, I 

 will be mistaken. Yes, they will put every Re- 

 publican hide on the free list. 



" Why not give bounty to the people who are 

 burning their corn for fuel in Kansas? They 

 need your help. No man now dares to rise here 

 and speak for the State of Kansas as was done 

 two years ago, when it was said that the farmers 

 of Kansas were in the very heyday of their pros- 

 perity and were all getting rich. We do not hear 

 those fine speeches any more. Egyptian dark- 

 ness is all around them now. No "ray of light 

 can penetrate the thick veil that shrouds the 

 land. Bankruptcy stares every farmer in the 

 face, and, dark as is the night, he can see its re- 

 pulsive features and feel the cold touch of its 

 hand. 



" And yet, Mr. Chairman, in the midst of this 

 ' widespread depression ' our friends, after put- 

 ting a high duty on every article, every neces- 

 sary of life which enters into his humble home, 

 propose, in addition, to compel him to pay trib- 

 ute to sugar growers, to swell their fortunes 

 while he shrinks in his poverty. They ram their 

 hands up to the shoulder in his pocket, and take 

 $7,000,000 and give it as a bounty to somebody 

 to raise sugar. 



" You are going to give bounties on steam- 

 ships, too. My friend from Ohio spoke most 

 eloquently, as he always does, in advocacy of 

 bounties to steamships.' He said we ought to 

 check importations, obstruct foreign trade ; that 

 it is demoralizing our labor ; that we ought to 

 build up home markets and home trade; and 



