CONGRESS. 





F 



FARMERS' CONGRESS. The sixteenth an- 

 nual session of the Farmers' National Congress of the 

 United Slates convened in the hall of the House of 

 Representatives at Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 10, 1896. 

 Hon. Benjamin F. Clayton, of Iowa, president of the 

 congress, presided, and lion. J. M. Stahl. of Chi- 

 , was secretary, assisted by Prof. C. A. Stock- 

 well, of Rhode Island, and D. 0. Lively, of Texas. 

 Hon. Claude Mathews, Governor of the State, in his 

 address of welcome, said : 



" Indiana, while but thirty-third in area in the 

 list of States, has, through the great fertility of her 

 soil and the intelligent development of her wonder- 

 ful resources by her farmers, been placed in the 

 front ranks of the great grain-producing and live- 

 stock States of the Union. Indiana, recognizing 

 the great truth that the basis of wealth and pros- 

 perity of a people more largely rests upon a farm, 

 \er held out an encouraging hand to its agri- 

 culture, and through this wise and just encourage- 

 ment has our State rapidly and continuously in- 

 creased in wealth and in the happiness and content- 

 ment of our people. It has been eloquently said 

 that you might burn your cities to the ground and 

 soon a prosperous country would rebuild them ; but 

 destroy the prosperity of the farm, and grass would 

 grow in the great commercial streets of our cities. 

 But great as has been the encouragement which 

 Indiana and doubtless other States have given to 

 agriculture through equitable laws, public senti- 

 ment, and moral aid, there is yet more need, and 

 through such meetings as this of yours may the 

 way be pointed out to secure these needs." 



Responding to the welcome of the Governor, 

 President Clayton then delivered his annual ad- 

 dress, in which he said : 



" Our meeting follows in quick succession a de- 

 termined and closely contested national campaign. 

 In this campaign the interest of every farmer and 

 producer has been involved. Laying aside the bit- 

 ter personal attacks that usually characterize na- 

 tional politics, having as leaders men of the highest 

 personal integrity and character, a campaign of 

 education was inaugurated and 70,000.000 Ameri- 

 can people in the sacred right couched in the 

 silent ballot rendered their verdict on Nov. 3. and, 

 as a result of that campaign, no people so well un- 

 derstand the financial system of their government 

 as do ours. While it is quite natural for a large 

 and equally intelligent minority of our people to 

 feel disappointed at the results, yet it is fair to pre- 

 sume that they will join with the majority in the 

 hope that the verdict at the polls the high and 

 supreme tribunal before which great issues must be 

 decided will result in the restoration of life and 

 activity to our commercial centers, and give em- 

 ployment to both capital and labor. 



" At the fourteenth annual meeting, at Parkers- 

 burg. W. Va.. in 1804. this organization, by a practi- 

 cally unanimous vote, passed a resolution, declaring 

 that to whatever degree either great political party 

 shall adopt the policy of protection, we. as repre- 

 sentatives of the farming interest, demand that an 

 equal protection be given to farm products. A 

 committee was appointed to confer with a coi. 

 sional committee as to the readjustment of tariff 

 schedules on farm products. I regret that there 

 has been no report from that committee, but I have 

 been placed in possession of figures on farm prod- 

 ii' i- under the operation of the former and the 

 present revenue laws, both of which are protective; 



VOL. xxxvi. 18 A 



hence I shall give the facts without fear of party 

 criticism. During the last fiscal year of the opera- 

 tion of the former law the agricultural imports of 

 20 articles the like of which we produce North 

 and South amounted to $65,804,446; during the 

 first calendar year of the operation of the pr. 

 law the importation of the same articles amounted 

 to $134,068.860, or an increase over the former law 

 of $68,264,314. In the exportation of farm prod- 

 ucts we find the discrepancy still greater in 27 

 chief articles produced on the farm. During the 

 fiscal year 1894 we exported farm products to the 

 amount of $907,946.945, while during the calendar 

 year 1895 there were exports in the same product 

 to the amount of only S751.s33.937, a decrease of 

 $156.113,008. Adding the gain in imports to the 

 loss in exports, the American farmer loses in one 

 vear $224*337,322. The discrepancy between the 

 last year of the former law and the fiscal year clos- 

 ing in 1896 discloses a loss of $496,000,000" or a loss 

 in two years under the late schedule of approxi- 

 mately $721,000,000. It may be claimed with some 

 show of reason that other conditions aside from the 

 change in schedules produced this effect, as. for 

 instance, on the article of hides, on the free list 

 under both schedules, the increased importation 

 was S19.162.272, on wool the increase was $27,- 

 662.718, while our exports in cotton and breacU 

 stuffs receded $81,122,389. 



" If these figures be true, a vigorous remonstrance 

 to these schedules should go up from this body, and 

 we should demand that the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment investigate each item. Should protection be 

 the policy of the Government, then it should be 

 applied to farm products, and the Agricultural 

 Department should recommend to the General Gov- 

 ernment such changes in the tariff schedule as will 

 furnish the same protection to the product of the 

 farm that is accorded to other grain interests. 



" Notwithstanding the antitrust laws found in 

 our statutes, combinations of the most gigantic pro- 

 portions have been formed, which bid defiance to 

 the courts of law and absolutely control the pur- 

 chase and selling price of live stock and its prod- 

 ucts. In my judgment, it is a dark day when these 

 combinations are permitted to invade any State. 

 Gradually they are extending their powers and fas- 

 tening their fangs upon the important trade center* 

 of the States with a rapacious greed that threatens 

 to sweep everything before it. Will any well-read 

 man deny the proposition that these combinations 

 can say to the farmer. ' You shall take your stock to 

 the market and sell it to us at our price, or toothers 

 at prices dictated by us ? ' These charges have often 

 been made, and they have never been publicly de- 

 nied by those combinations. They have invaded our 

 country with the foreign beef carcass; they have 

 come within the gates of our cities, have destroyed 

 the slaughter houses, and have driven the local 

 business man to the wall through the siren song of 

 cheap beef ; and the time is not far distant when 

 they will as absolutely control the price to the con- 

 sumer. When you get behind the screen that con- 

 ceals the National Grain and Millers' Associations, 

 you will find the same conditions. Unless checked 

 by State and national legislation, the Millers' Asso- 

 ciation will soon dictate to the farmer the price of 

 his grain, and to the consumer the price of his 

 breadstuff, as absolutely as the Whisky Trust con- 

 trols the price of its goods. The meetings of these 

 organizations are clandestine. Some time since I 



