OF AT.IERICA. 25 



CHAPTER IV. 



HOW TO PUT A STOP TO THE INTOLERABLE LOSSES WHICH 

 ARE YEAR AFTER YEAR INFLICTED ON THE FARMERS 

 OF AMERICA. 



Fortunately, great as is the grievance, its removal is easy. 

 The remedy is in the farmer's own hands. It Hes in the 

 exercise of his voting power. It is simply this : let the 

 American farmers give their support to no candidate for a 

 seat in the House of Representatives who does not pledge 

 himself, if elected, to propose, or at least to vote for, " a re- 

 duction of 5 per cent, every successive year on the import 

 duties, till the whole are abolished!^ Never mind what party 

 he may belong to. The relief of the farmers from an in- 

 tolerable burden is not, cannot be, and must not be, a 

 party question. It is a paramount and inevitable measure 

 which comes before, overrides, and casts into the shade all 

 party distinctions. To refuse the abolition of the tariff is 

 to refuse justice to the agriculturists. It amounts to a per- 

 sistence in the iniquity of confiscating the farmer's property. 

 Up with the tariff means down with the farmer ! 



If it be said that abrogation of the tariff would suppress 

 one of the sources of State revenue, the Western farmer's 

 ready reply would be, "Out of the $400,000,000 yearly 

 taken from us, only §60,000,000 go to the revenue. There 

 are plenty of ways of raising §60,000,000 of revenue 

 without resorting to the clumsy, wasteful, roundabout pro- 

 cess of inflicting on us a loss of §400,000,000 to enable 

 the State to get $60,000,000. You might as well say 

 that there is no other way of roasting a pig than by burning 

 down the house. We shall be all the better able to pay the 

 taxes necessary to replace the import duties if our earnings 

 are left with us intact." 



