THE FARMERS' SALT QUESTION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE FARMERS' SALT QUESTION. 



r T > HE iniquity of the tariff on salt the way the duty on salt robs 

 L all classes, particularly the farmer the bounty which the duty 

 extorts from every consumer of salt, merely in order to enrich that 

 bloated monopolist, the salt manufacturer these have been an un- 

 failing resource for Free Trade orators and writers in appealing to 

 the people against the Protective policy. So, in his recent con- 

 tribution to the September number of the Atlantic Monthly, David 

 A. Wells could not abstain from repeating the stale and spurious 

 argument. We quote from it as follows : 



For a number of years subsequent to 1860, Congress, with a view of protecting 

 the American producer, imposed such a duty on foreign salt as to restrict the im- 

 port and at least double the price of this commodity, whether of foreign or do- 

 mestic production, to the American consumer. The result was, taking the aver- 

 age price of No. I spring wheat for the same period in Chicago, that a farmer of 

 the West, desirous of buying salt in that market, would have been obliged to give 

 two bushels of wheat for a barrel of salt, which, without the tariff, he would have 

 readily obtained for one bushel. 



These averments relate to matters of fact, and the facts contra- 

 dict Mr. Wells point blank. It is manifest that his statements are 

 made at random. If the price of salt has been doubled under 

 Protection, and a barrel of salt requires two bushels of wheat to 

 pay for it, whereas one bushel sufficed under partial Free Trade, as 

 he asserts, then the price of wheat must have remained stationary; 

 for, if the price of wheat has advanced, less than two bushels of 

 wheat would purchase the barrel of salt. Wheat having really in- 

 creased in price, the position, taken by Mr. Wells must of necessity 

 be false. He also insists that the tariff has restricted importations. 

 Here he is again refuted by the facts. For the four years ending 

 June 30, 1861, with 15 per cent, duty on salt, we imported 2,632,- 



