230 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



his various newspaper articles Mr. Lubin has stated 

 his views with a force and clearness that have 

 attracted instant attention. It is difficult to repro- 

 duce his reasoning and conclusions in small space, 

 but briefly they are as follows: The United States 

 pays the highest average wage rate of any country in 

 the world. This fact is due to the protective tariff. 

 But those benefited by protection do not bear the 

 cost of it. Neither does the foreigner pay it. " They 

 alone pay it who live and produce under it and are 

 compelled to sell their products at free trade prices." 

 He proves the latter assertion by saying that the 



DAVID LUBIN, 

 Of Sacramento, California. 



price of wheat is fixed by the price which the surplus 

 product commands at Liverpool, in competition with 

 the product of the poorest and cheapest unprotected 

 labor of foreign lands. To remove the protective 

 tariff, he says, would bring disaster to manufacturers 

 and therefore to the country ; to continue conditions 

 which impoverish the farmer will also lead to inevit- 

 able disaster, not alone to those who till the soil, but 

 to those whose labor is now employed in manufactur- 

 ing goods consumed by tillers of the soil. He says 

 the remedy cannot be found in silver coinage, even if 

 it be universal. That would increase the price of 

 commodities, and so increase the burdens of produ- 

 cers, but the value of their products would still be 

 established by the price of their surplus at free trade 

 Liverpool, where they would come into contact with 

 wheat and cotton raised by ryots and peons. These, 

 then, are Mr. Lubin's premises and here is his remedy : 

 That the government of the United States shall pay a sum out 

 of its custom house receipts in order to reduce the price oi freight 

 on exports of staple agricultural products. For instance: If the 

 price of freight is 20 cents a bushel on wheat, let the government 

 pay 10 cents and the shipper 10 cents It will make the price of 

 wheat 90 cents in place of 80 cents. 



Mr. Lubm anticipates and answers sev- 

 General . . . 



Objections eral objections to his plan. He declares 

 Answered. that it j s not a b ounty) s j nce tne govern- 

 ment would make the proposed payment only upon 

 the portion of the crop exported. He thinks it should 

 not be opposed by eastern workingmen, since they 

 will be benefited by the prosperity and consequent 

 ability to buy, of the agricultural classes. He takes 

 issue with those who propose to limit the production of 

 wheat by saying that such a thing is just as impossible 

 as to say how many shoemakers or bricklayers there 

 shall be. Mr. Lubm is pushing his idea with much 

 vigor and at an opportune time. The matter natur- 

 ally attracts wide attention and as naturally com- 

 mands the support of the masses of western and 

 southern producers. They are suffering from prices 

 that enable them only to barely exist. They think 

 there has been an unfair distribution of government 

 favors and of general prosperity. 



We agree with Mr. Lubin's premises, 

 The One , , , . ,,, 



American but do not share his confidence that his 



Policy, proposed remedy will soon become a 

 popular, still less a dominant, political issue. It 

 would raise unjustly, we think the fiercest sectional 

 animosities. It would array in opposition all the 

 mighty forces of conservatism. It would make the 

 most dangerous of political alignments that of class 

 against class. And we have not the slightest idea 

 that it could prevail except on the tide of an irre- 

 sistible revolution. Speaking now not as a partisan, 

 but as an American of the western school, we say that 

 there are but two pathways of which our people may 

 make choice. One is free trade, as nearly absolute as 

 revenue-producing necessities will permit; the other 

 is protection, consistently applied to every interest of 

 our people. The first means that we shall enter the 

 world's markets on the world's terms. Our wheat- 

 grower must accept the same pay per bushel as the 

 Indian ryot and the Mexican peon, saving only such 

 advantages as he may have in superior muscle, 

 agility or machinery. So also with all other laborers, 

 mechanics and artisans. We must work for the 

 world's markets, accept the world's prices, live as the 

 world lives the standard being set by the meanest 

 labor in the lowest country on the globe. Either 

 that, or we must protect and foster our home market 

 and be sustaining within ourselves. Then we con- 

 trol our own situation and maintain our present 

 wages, our present scale of living, the present sur- 

 passing quality of our civilization. As for wheat, 

 there must be no surplus. Fortunately we are no 

 longer enormously expanding our wheat-growing 

 area. Demand must steadily gain on supply. The 

 day will come when we shall import wheat, and 

 thereby raise its world-wide price. We shall settle 

 millions of acres of new lands, but not with one-crop 



