FARMERS' SUPPLIES CHEAPENED BY PROTECTION. 109 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



FARMERS' SUPPLIES CHEAPENED BY PROTECTION. 



*' T)UT for the high import duties imposed by the tariff, farmers' 

 JL) supplies would be as cheap as before the war." This is a 

 constant assertion by the Free Trade press an assertion based 

 upon imaginary facts. The truth is all the other way. Never be- 

 fore in our history has agricultural produce or its money proceeds 

 had so much purchasing power for the finished products of the 

 loom, the anvil, or the shop. 



One of the largest reaper manufacturers in the United States 

 gives us the following facts in regard to reapers. During the four 

 years 1857-60 his establishment made a single bar and single 

 wheel reaper which was sold for $155. The commission for selling 

 was $10 on each machine. Much of the labor was paid for at 75 

 cents a day. In 1872 he sold a double bar and double wheel 

 reaper for $200, in 1873 f r $200, in 1874 for $195, in 1875 f r 

 $i 85, and paid $30 dollars for selling. He now pays $1.50 for the 

 same class of labor that was obtained for only 75 cents before the 

 war. The reaper of the present day would cost considerably more 

 to manufacture, if material were the same price as in 1857, be- 

 cause it consists of more pieces, is built more strongly, is more 

 thoroughly finished, works more easily, and does better service 

 than the reapers made before the war, and is estimated by the maker 

 to be worth at least 50 per cent. more. 



The following statement relative to plows and cultivators ap- 

 peared in the Chicago Evening Journal, Nov. 5. 



In a recent interview with the manager of the largest implement manufactory 

 in the Northwest (Messrs. Furst & Bradley), he said : " It is impossible to com- 

 pare the price of plows ^1857-58-59-60 with the price during the past four 

 years. There is no more resemblance between 'a plow of those years and now 

 than there is between daylight and darkness. A plow, such as we sell now, 

 would then have cost 100 per cent, more to manufacture than it costs now, with 



