1892 
655 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER. 
Farmers  and  the  Tariff. 
A  joint  debate  between  a  High  Protectionist  and  a  Free  Trader.  Conditions:  Brevity  and 
truth.  What  each  writes  is  unseen  by  the  other  until  printed. 
PROTECTION  AND  FREE  TRADE. 
What  Others  Say. 
( Continued .) 
Farmer  Blair,  a  neighbor  one  mile  dis¬ 
tant,  planted  an  English  walnut  25  years 
ago.  It  is  now  14  inches  in  mean  diam¬ 
eter  of  the  trunk  and  30  feet  high.  It 
began  to  bear  about  seven  years  ago  and 
has  continued  to  give  a  crop  every  year 
since  of  from  half  a  bushel  to  a  bushel. 
Severe  winters  cut  back  some  of  the 
branches  three  or  four  feet . 
If  any  of  the  fairs  were  to  offer  a  prem¬ 
ium  for  the  worst  seedling  pear,  Tiie  It. 
N.-Y.  would  not  hesitate  to  compete.  It 
would  send  specimens  of  its  dozen  seed- 
lings  grown  from  Japan  seeds  and  worked 
on  the  Keiffer . 
The  huckleberry  of  commerce  is  mainly 
the  Vaccinium  Pennsylvanicum,  but 
there  are  resinosum,  corymbosum  and 
others,  bearing  berries  just  as  good  as 
the  best.  Joseph  Meehan  mentions  in 
the  Practical  Farmer  that  he  saw  in  a 
garden  near  Philadelphia  a  week  or  so 
ago  bushes  of  corymbosum  and  resinosum 
as  full  as  they  could  be  of  fine,  dark  ber¬ 
ries,  and  they  had  only  been  planted  two 
years,  and  then  were  set  out  as  orna¬ 
mental  shrubs,  and  not  for  fruiting. 
Both  the  Pennsylvanicum  and  the  resin¬ 
osum  are  rather  low-growing  bushes,  and 
are  of  main  use  for  their  fruiting,  but 
the  corymbosum  grows  to  be  a  large 
bush,  and  bears  beautiful  white  flowers 
in  spring.  Then  the  fruit  follows,  and 
lastly  the  foliage  turns  to  a  most  brilliant 
scarlet  in  autumn,  making  such  display 
as  to  attract  the  notice  of  every  one . 
Bulletin  No.  33  of  the  Kansas  Agri¬ 
cultural  College  treats  of  wheat  trials  and 
experiments.  Many  varieties  were  tried 
side  by  side.  Prof.  Georgeson  gives 
most  of  the  Rural  wheats  thus  far  intro¬ 
duced  a  black  eye.  “  Beal  ’’yielded  the 
best.  Here  is  the  report:  “  Beal.  June 
23.  Stand,  thick;  plants  lodged  badly, 
rusted  slightly;  heads  long,  square,  extra 
fine,  and  well  filled  at  the  tip.  A  very 
fine  looking  wheat,  but  late.  Headed, 
June  10.  Ripe,  July  9.  Height,  4.2 
feet;  straw  coarse;  heads  bearded, 
square,  compact;  chaff  white;  grains  in 
spikelet,  3,  red,  medium,  much  shrunken. 
Yield,  32.90  bushels  per  acre  ;  yield  in 
1891,  25.92  bushels  per  acre  ;  average 
yield  for  two  years,  29.41  bushels. 
When  we  consider  the  time  and  care 
that  have  been  given  to  these  wheats 
during  many  years,  an  unfavorable  re¬ 
port  makes  us  sick . 
The  fertilizer  question,  says  our  old 
friend  Colman’s  Rural  World,  published 
in  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  is  the  great  question  of 
the  day  in  the  West  as  in  the  East. 
Farmers  who  stand  aloof  from  it  will  lag 
in  the  race  and  fall  in  the  competition. 
The  one  is  raising  30  to  35  bushels  of 
wheat  to  the  acre,  the  other,  following 
the  old  neglectful  methods  and  time¬ 
worn  processes,  only  from  12  to  16.  Our 
readers,  continues  our  contemporary,  are 
thinking  of  these  things,  thinking  much 
and  well,  for  it  is  not  in  wheat  alone  fer¬ 
tilizers  are  called  for  but  in  every  other 
crop . 
Great  changes  may  and  do  come  upon 
us  suddenly,  in  agriculture,  as  in  all 
else.  Our  memory  is  quite  alive  to  the 
fact  that  Western  readers,  a  few  years 
ago,  complained  that  The  R.  N.-Y.  was 
talking  all  too  much  of  fertilizers  and 
fertilizer  problems.  Our  assurances  that 
it  might  be  well  for  the  young  enterpris¬ 
ing  farmers  of  the  West  to  study  such 
lessons  fell  upon  listless  ears  that  are  now 
ready  to  listen  attentively . 
We  should  like  to  hear  more  of  the 
Geneva  Grape  ;  more  said  in  its  praise. 
It  is  not  of  high  flavor,  but  juicy,  re¬ 
freshing,  tender  and  pure . 
The  R.  N.-Y.  has  gathered  12  barrels 
of  the  best  of  its  cross-bred  tomatoes. 
The  12  barrels  (ordinary  flour  barrels) 
made  seven  pounds  of  seeds . 
*  *  * 
Boys  and  Girls  Can  Make  Money  by 
working  for  The  Rural  New-Yorker. 
Send  in  your  names  IF  you  are  really 
willing  to  work,  not  otherwise. 
The  Protection  View. 
Farmers  are  sellers,  not  buyers.  They 
feed  workmen  in  other  industries.  The 
closer  to  the  men  they  feed  the  fewer 
middlemen.  “  Enlarged  European  mar¬ 
kets”  mean  extra  middlemen.  “  Protec¬ 
tion  ”  has  made  America  what  it  is 
for  power  and  strength.  “  Protection  ” 
also  created  English  manufacturing  in¬ 
terests.  But  for  King  Edward’s  wool 
tariff  in  the  Thirteenth  Century,  England 
would  have  remained  an  agricultural 
country — exporting  wool  to  be  made  into 
cloth  on  the  Continent.  England  to-day 
recognizes  the  principle  of  protection  by 
granting  subsidies  to  steamship  lines  and 
special  privileges  to  merchants.  England 
exports  nothing  but  the  products  of 
skilled  labor.  On  these  she  has  a  natural 
protection,  her  workmen  having  the 
skill  of  heredity.  Protection  gives  to 
farmers  a  nearby  market  or  an  increased 
price.  Direct  protection  keeps  from  our 
markets  foreign  grown  products  like 
barley,  tobacco,  potatoes,  wool,  eggs, 
horses,  etc.  Indirect  protection  creates 
manufacturing  towns  and  pays  good 
wages  to  workmen  of  all  classes  who 
in  turn  pay  out  that  money  for  food 
and  clothing.  A  protective  tariff  puts  a 
duty  on  imported  goods  large  enough  to 
enable  manufacturers  to  pay  higher 
wages  than  are  paid  abroad  and  to  pay 
for  the  experiments  always  necessary  in 
new  businesses.  The  farmer  will  pay  five 
cents  more  for  his  pail  if  he  may  feed 
the  workman  that  makes  it.  Better 
do  that  than  feed  the  same  workman 
2,000  miles  away.  This  price  will  not 
continue.  Protection  increases  American 
competition  and  ultimately  decreases 
prices  by  means  of  improved  processes. 
Salt,  steel  rails,  iron  ware,  clothing, 
furniture,  etc.,  have  all  been  reduced  in 
price  under  protection.  A  church  near 
my  home,  recently  burned,  can  be 
duplicated  to-day  for  less  than  when  built 
15  years  ago,  though  workmen  labor  one 
hour  less  per  day  and  earn  50  cents  more 
per  day.  Labor  is  the  only  increased  item 
of  expense.  Competition  between  the 
dealers  and  builders  has  decreased  the 
cost  of  materials.  “Free  trade”  in 
Western  dressed  beef  has  killed  our 
business  of  fattening  cattle.  Now  that 
it  is  destroyed,  beef  has  gone  up  in  price. 
There  is  no  tariff  on  anthracite  coal, 
and  yet  the  “  coal  combine”  is  the  great¬ 
est  “trust”  of  the  age  !  Raw  materials 
to  be  used  in  exported  goods  are  now  99 
per  cent  free. 
The  English  direct  tax  falls  harder  on 
English  farmers  than  our  taxes  on  Ameri¬ 
can  farmers.  Assuming  the  produce  of 
labor  to  be  100,  this  division  is  found  : 
To  Labor.  To  capital.  To  Gov’t. 
In  England .  5U  21  23 
In  America .  72  23  5 
Our  protective  tariff  admits  free  of 
duty  articles  that  cannot  be  made  here, 
and  puts  the  highest  duties  on  luxuries. 
As  a  result  the  rich  pay  $10  of  the  duty 
where  the  poor  pay  one. 
Historically  considered,  free  trade  has 
the  theory,  protection  has  the  facts.  In 
spite  of  Cobden’s  prophecy,  England  re¬ 
mains  the  only  free-trade  country — even 
her  colonies  have  high  tariffs.  Eng¬ 
lish  farming  has  steadily  lost  ground. 
Food  that  we  send  abroad  competes 
with  English  fanners — worse  off  now 
than  English  workmen.  No  wonder 
the  returns  from  English  farms  are 
32  per  cent  less  than  formerly  !  We 
believe  Lord  Salisbury  when  he  says, 
“Free  trade  is  sentiment,  but  it  is  not 
business.,,  The  most  prosperous  farmers 
abroad  are  the  Germans,  who  are  pro¬ 
tected  by  a  higher  tariff  than  ours.  Bis¬ 
marck  said,  in  advocating  it,  that,  after 
profound  study,  he  considered  it  “  neces¬ 
sary  to  imitate  the  tariff  system  of 
the  United  States.”  Farmers  growing 
cotton  and  grain  for  export  are  worst  off. 
No  hope  but  to  diversify  their  crops. 
This  needs  a  nearby  market,  which  is 
impossible  without  protection. 
The  Free  Trade  View. 
Protectionists  claim  that  a  “protec¬ 
tive”  tariff  protects  (1)  the  home  manu¬ 
facturer  against  competition  witli  for¬ 
eign  goods;  (2),  the  workman  against 
foreign  cheap  labor;  (3),  the  farmer 
against  foreign  produce  of  the  soil  ;  also 
that  “protection”  builds  up  home  in¬ 
dustries,  and  consequently  creates  (4), 
profitable  home  markets  for  farmers, 
and  (5),  high  wages  for  workmen. 
(1) . — Undoubtedly  true,  as  proved  by 
the  enormous  fortunes  accumulated  by 
the  “  protected”  monopolists. 
(2) . — This  might  be  true  if  the  “pro¬ 
tectionists  ”  did  not  bring  in  thousands 
and  millions  of  foreign  workmen  to  do 
the  work  of  their  mines  and  factories 
in  place  of  Americans. 
(3) . — Nonsensical,  because,  excepting 
an  insignificant  fraction,  no  other  “civ¬ 
ilized  ”  country  produces  enough  for  its 
home  use. 
(4) . — Sometimes  true,  sometimes  not. 
Let  every  farmer  reader  living  near 
manufacturing  “home-markets”  compare 
his  present  condition  with  that  of  30,  20, 
or  10  years  ago  ;  then  answer  for  himself. 
(5) . — High  wages  are  no  proof  of  pros¬ 
perity.  Wages  are  20  to  100  per  cent 
higher  in  New  York  than  in  American 
provincial  cities ;  but  the  cost  of  living 
varies  proportionately.  The  $2  in  the 
one  case  will  buy  no  more  than  the  $1  in 
the  other.  The  tariff  has  nothing  to  do 
with  wages.  What  the  workman  must 
have  to  live  upon  is  the  real  arbiter.  I 
have  traveled  extensively  among  the 
working  people  of  many  countries.  The 
average  of  prosperity  is  quite  as  high 
now  in  England,  France  and  Germany  as 
with  us.  Thirty  odd  years  ago,  before  the 
high  “protection”  craze,  American  work¬ 
ingmen  were  the  most  prosperous  in  the 
world,  while  manufacturers’  profits  were 
moderate.  The  boot  has  changed  feet ! 
Real  “free  trade”  is  almost  if  not 
quite  unknown  on  this  planet,  except  in 
the  United  States.  It  exists  in  perfec¬ 
tion  between  the  sovereign  States  that 
form  the  Union.  O,  yes,  it  also  exists 
between  the  federated  States,  Bavaria, 
Prussia,  Saxony,  Wurtemburg  and  the 
dozen  or  so  other  kingdoms  and  princi¬ 
palities  that  now  comprise  the  German 
Empire.  Each  was  small,  weak  and  of 
little  consequence  previous  to  20  years 
ago,  when  each  was  “protected”  against 
the  trade  and  manufactures  of  its  neigh¬ 
bors.  Now,  with  absolute  free  trade 
among  them,  joining  hands  in  commerce 
as  well  as  in  government,  their  prosperity 
has  made  them  great.  Germany  is  now 
only  second  in  power  and  influence  in 
Europe  to  Great  Britain,  whose  commerce 
is  the  greatest  in  the  world,  and  whose 
people  enjoy  a  larger  freedom  of  trade 
with  other  nations. 
Would  not  even  greater  prosperity  re¬ 
sult  from  a  compact  for  equal  freedom 
for  commerce  between  these  three  great¬ 
est  nations,  each  of  which,  in  its  own 
way,  has  thus  proven  the  benefits  of 
freedom  of  trade  for  itself  ? 
“  Free  trade  ”  means  simply,  freedom 
of  judgment  and  will  in  the  individual  to 
buy  and  sell  where  he  thinks  best,  un¬ 
controlled  by  the  interests  of  monopolies 
grown  rich  by  the  aid  of  “  protection.” 
Yet  the  free  trade  movement  only 
aims  now  at  a  gradual  growth  towards 
the  condition  of  real  commercial  free¬ 
dom,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no  vio¬ 
lent  disturbances  from  an  overthrow  of 
even  the  iniquitous  system  which  has 
concentrated  the  wealth  of  the  country 
in  a  few  hands,  creating  an  autocratic 
“  money  power,  ”  which  knows  no  code 
of  moralty  except  that  of  the  almighty 
dollar,  and  which  is  now  actually  crow¬ 
ing  over  the  desolation  caused  in  Wales 
by  the  killing  of  the  tin  industry  there 
by  our  last  high  “  protection  ”  tariff. 
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Full  particulars  regarding  this 
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