THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



57 



SENATOR FRANCIS E. WARREN, 



of "Wyoming, Chairman Arid Lands Committee, U. 8. 



Senate. 



real cause, the winning party was natu- 

 rally held responsible for the results which 

 so promptly followed. Yet it is the plain 

 truth that the free trade policy was never 

 put in operation, except as to a few arti- 

 cles, and that the substitute legislation 

 for the McKinley bill provided for a tariff 

 quite as high and equally protective as to 

 many important industries. The public 

 clamor has been so loud that even the 

 democrats themselves have tired of it, and 

 while the republicans have sought to make 

 capital out of the question they have been 

 careful to assert that only such changes 

 will be made, in event of their success 

 in the coming election, as may be neces- 

 sary to provide for a sufficient revenue to 

 meet the requirements of the government. 

 There is only the difference as between 

 tweedledum and tweedledee in the two 

 platforms this year. The republicans de- 

 mand a protective tariff to produce suffi- 

 cient revenue : the democrats favor a tariff 

 that will provide sufficient revenue and 

 that will incidentally afford an equal pro- 

 tection to all industries. They are willing 

 to drop the subject and say no more about 

 it, for every intelligent man is fairly con- 

 vinced that free trade is not best for this 

 nation under existing conditions. 



Silver Financial questions came to 

 Coinage. the front before the president- 

 elect could take his seat, and the first 

 notable act of President Cleveland was 

 the calling of a special session to consider 

 the repeal of the Sherman silver coinage 

 law. It was asserted and insisted that 

 only that was necessary to turn the tide of 

 disaster. But the tide did not turn, and 

 is still at ebb. Industry is half paralyzed; 

 the common people are living on past 

 accumulations, and are compelled to a 

 practice of economy that is a hardship to 

 an American of any degree; great crops 

 are almost valueless to the producers, the 

 income from them being barely sufficient 

 to support life and affording no margin 

 for expenditures which had made this the 

 greatest home market ever known. The 

 payment of old debts has been suspended, 

 and even the current obligations can not 

 be met. It is said that the implement 

 dealers alone are carrying more than sixty 

 millions of past due paper. There is no 

 intent to repudiate or avoid its pay- 

 ment, but the crops they raise will not 

 bring them money enough to pay it with. 

 Constituting about one-half the popula- 

 tion of our country, such a condition for 

 our farmers cannot fail to have a blight- 



o 



ing effect on dependent industries. Right 

 here is where the trouble begins. The 

 farmer cannot prosper with wheat at 35 

 cents a bushel, oats at 5 to 10 cents, po- 

 tatoes at 10 to 20 cents, and everything 

 else in proportion. He can live with but 

 little in addition to his own products, but 

 he can neither enjoy the comforts and 

 luxuries to which he has become accus- 

 tomed, nor can he accumulate property. 



Cause of Reference is here made 

 Loiv Prices. particu i ar i y to the prices 



of farm products. Let us see how they 

 are fixed and where. Western Europe 

 and Great Britain is the chief consuming 

 market for food supplies and raw materi- 

 als. Manufacturing in all its branches is 

 the most important industry, employing 

 most labor and capital. Their agricul- 

 tural productions, though large in the 

 aggregate, do not supply the home mar- 

 kets. Here, then, is the dumping ground 

 of the surplus products of all other coun- 

 tries. That country which can sell the 

 cheapest sets the price at which all others 

 must sell of any particular commodity. 



