1893 
385 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
THE PROSPECT. 
There has been much speculation as to the prob¬ 
able course of the new Administration as regards 
tariff changes. The Democrats aie pledged to change 
our present tariff laws so as to wipe out all “ protec¬ 
tion ” and collect duties only that sufficient revenues 
for an honestly conducted government shall ever be 
collected. How do they propose to bring that about? 
What duties are to be removed and how will the 
change affect farmers ? These questions are in part 
answered by the suggested tariff bill sent out by the 
Tariff Reform Club of this city. While the framers 
of this bill say it is merely a suggestion, there is good 
reason to believe that it expresses the ideas of Presi¬ 
dent Cleveland and other tariff reform leaders. It is 
safe to assume that the bill which is to take the place 
of the McKinley Bill will be framed on these general 
iines. ' X X X 
Briefly stated, the principles on which the new 
bill is constructed are as follows : 
First.—Universal adoption of the ad valorem system Instead of the 
method of specific duties. 
Second.—The reduction of the general average ad valorem rate to 
25 per cent or less. 
Third.—The enlargement of the free list so as to Include all ele¬ 
ments of Industry, Including in that designation both what have been 
called raw materials, and those partially manufactured products 
which are largely used In the perfection of the completely manufac¬ 
tured article. 
Ad valorem means “ according to the value,” and this 
principle is to rule all through the new tariff sched¬ 
ule. We are not considering the arguments for or 
against the new bill, but simply giving a brief sum¬ 
mary of its bearing upon agriculture. There are 
eight schedules with 50 per cent duty on two articles 
—fire crackers ana manufactured tobacco ; 40 per 
cent on two more—wines and raw tobacco ; 30 per 
cent on six articles, including silk manufactures; 25 
per cent on 12 articles, including manufactures of 
wool; 20 per cent on 20 articles, including honey and 
hops; 15 per cent on 15 articles and 10 per cent on 27 
articles, including potatoes and barley. All else is to 
be free, including hay, wool, eggs, vegetables, ani¬ 
mals, salt and all breadstuffs except barley, bread 
and biscuits. j j j 
Of the products grown by the American farmer 
there will be a 40 per cent tariff on raw tobacco, 20 
per cent on honey and hops and a few fruits such as 
lemons and prunes, and 10 per cent on barley and 
potatoes. By figuring the average prices of such arti¬ 
cles one can see that this means not over five cents 
for potatoes or six or seven for barley in place of the 
present tariff of 25 and 30 cents. All else will be free. 
It will be noticed, however, that while wool is made 
free the manufacturer of wool is to be protected by a 
25 per cent duty, and that the manufacturer of to¬ 
bacco has 50 per cent duty while the grower has but 
40 per cent. As to tobacco and potatoes, the follow¬ 
ing extracts from the proposed bill will give an idea 
of the spirit in which it was prepared : 
As to liquors an<l tobacco, the duties upon them should be made 
with a view to obtaining the greatest possible amount of revenue, 
without any concern as to whether. In so doing, we give or withhold 
protection to the domestic producer. The enormous protection now 
given Is destructive of revenue. 
Farmers may judge of the wisdom of this state¬ 
ment about potatoes: 
Potatoes are also left subject to a duty of 10 per cent, because those 
which are Imported are, in four years out of five, chiefly of a superior 
kind, used as a comparative luxury; and, If these only were Imported, 
the duty might properly be placed even higher. On the other hand, 
there Is a partial failure of the potato crop every few years, and then 
potatoes are largely Imported as a necessity. A compromise rate must 
therefore be adopted, since the duty cannot fluctuate to meet the 
varying quality of the Imported potato; and 10 per cent Is a rate which 
will produce considerable revenue, without being at any time oppress¬ 
ive. In years of abundance, the lmportatlon of the superior grade of 
potato Is never so large as to make It worth while to study the Interest 
of the revenue by Imposing a higher tax. 
X X X 
Almost all tbe manufactured goods bought by farm¬ 
ers are still to be subject to a tariff, including manu¬ 
factures of wood, wool, iron, tin, cotton, silk, gluss, 
furs and gloves. The duty oj these goods is lowered, 
however, and binding twine is put on the free list. 
To sum it up, what the farmer grows is generally free, 
what he buys is subject to a low tariff, 'i he authors 
of this scheme say tuey are satisfied if their tariff will 
produce a revenue of 8120,000,000. This, they figure, 
with the internal revenue receipts, will leave a defi¬ 
ciency if the Government is “economically adminis¬ 
tered” of about 860,000,000 the first year. To make 
this up they propose three schemes ; 
1. By short-Aate Government bills, to be paid out of the revenue of 
the next five years, which will certainly be sufficient for that purpose, 
because three-fourths of the deficiency will cease within two years. 
2. By a duty on sugar, and perhaps on tea and coffee. 
3. By an Income tax upon natural and artificial monopolies, such as 
railroads, telegraphs, telephones, gasworks and rents. 
This in brief is an outline of the proposed tariff 
changes. The farmer will find “where he is at” only 
by a few years of the new scheme. 
The women of Missouri have just organized the Rio 
Mar Navigation Company, capitalized at 8300,000. 
The projectors have taken all the stock of the Lucas 
Ship Company and propose at once to construct ves¬ 
sels under the Lucas patents for carrying passengers 
and freight between St. Louis and points to the south 
along the Mississippi River, as well as to ports in 
Texas, Mexico, the West Indies and South America. 
The ships under the Lucas patents are to have adjust¬ 
able keels so as to fit them especially well for navi¬ 
gation in shallow and deep waters—in rivers and at 
sea—and it is believed they will revolutionize river and 
ocean navigation. There are two novelties about this 
company—the fact that women alone are the stock¬ 
holders and managers, and the new method of ship¬ 
building. Who can fail to heartily wish a brilliant 
success to both ? 
X X X 
The Trusts or “ Industrials ” organized always to 
fleece the public, are having many a hard knock them¬ 
selves of late without exciting an iota of public sym¬ 
pathy. The National Cordage Company, better known 
to farmers as the Binding Twine Trust, has had a 
phenomenal downfall and is now bankrupt in the 
hands of a receiver. Less than a week after it divided 
8400,000 among its certificate holders as a dividend, 
it was unable to meet a note for 880,000, and in a few 
days its stock fell from 882 to 813 per share. In this 
case, strange to say, the heaviest promoters were also 
the heaviest sufferers. Then the unscrupulous Whisky 
Trust, known also as the Distillers’ and Cattle Feed¬ 
ers’ Company, met with a terrible backset; from 880 
per share its stock in four days fell to 823, and since 
then there has been a further fall of 83 per share. 
X X X 
The State of Illinois has just brought suit against 
it for having misused and perverted its powers and 
franchises and assumed liberties, powers and priv¬ 
ileges to which it wasn’t entitled, and it claims there¬ 
fore that it has forfeited its charter. Already six of 
its most prominent members are reported to have 
withdrawn intending to operate their plants them¬ 
selves in future, but the Trust denies that they can do 
so, while the general public suspect the whole trouble 
is a dishonest trick to render the certificates of almost 
nominal value, so that the “ insiders ” may be able to 
scoop up the stock of the “ outsiders ” “ for a song.” 
The losses of the other trusts during the late panic, 
the Standard Oil always excepted, have been well up 
among the tens of millions. Under instructions from 
the Minnesota Legislature, Gov. Nelson a short time 
ago, sent out invitations to the governors of all the 
States to send 10 delegates each and come themselves 
to an interstate conference to be held at Chicago on 
the first Monday and Tuesday of June to devise effec¬ 
tive laws and other means of fighting the coal combine 
and similar octopian organizations. According to the 
latest advices favorable responses have already been 
received from the governors of 27 States, those of 
Indiana .and New York alone refusing to comply. It 
is expected that the deliberations and conclusions of 
such a body will attract the attention not only of this 
country but of the whole world to the most menacing 
enemies of the age against the public welfare. 
X X X 
That Governor Flower has no special friendship for 
Trusts is shown by the fact that he has just signed 
the drastic Anti-Trust Bill passed by the recently ad¬ 
journed Legislature of New York. Hereafter any com¬ 
bination in the State havirg for its object the cur¬ 
tailment of production or the formation of a monopoly 
in articles of general necessity will be liable to a fine 
of not over 85,000 or to imprisonment of not over a 
year, or to both. It must be borne in mind, however, 
that hitherto all National and State laws against these 
pernicious combinations have been a dead letter, never 
having been effectually enforced. Still it is becoming 
almost universally accepted that the principles on 
which they are founded are subversive of the public 
welfare and at deadly enmity with the instincts and 
institutions of a free people. 
X X X 
Before the Pennsylvania Legislature there is now 
pending a bill which provides heavy penalties for the 
punishment of “ any person who overdrives, over¬ 
loads, tortures or cruelly beats or unjustifiably in¬ 
jures, maims, mutilates or kills any animal,” or who 
neglects to properly provide for the needs of live 
stock ; or who “ keeps cows or other animals in an in¬ 
closure without wholesome exercise and change of 
air,” or “feeds cows on food that produces unwhole 
some milk,” or “ any corporation engaged in trans¬ 
porting live stock that detains them in railroad cars 
or in compartments for a longer continuous period 
than 24 hours after the same are so placed within or 
beyond the State without supplying food and water,” 
or crowds the animals so that they will injure each 
other. It is provided that in the law the words 
“ torture, torment and cruelty shall be held to include 
every act, omission or neglect whereby unnecessary 
or unjustifiable pain or suffering is caused.” While 
the law is admirable in most respects, it is justly 
liable to the charge of indefiniteness in some. Does 
dishorning, for instance, “cause unjustifiable pain or 
suffering?” Does keeping dairy cows in the stable 
continuously for months in severe weather deprive 
them of “wholesome exercise and change of air?” 
The experience of practical farmers everywhere goes 
to show that dishorning causes little or no more pain 
than castration and other operations justifiable in the 
cases of dumb animals on account of the advantages 
to themselves or their owners. Again, many of the 
most humane, skillful and successful dairymen keep 
their cows constantly in clean, properly warmed and 
ventilated stables from late fall till grass time in 
spring, and the practice is steadily growing. It is a 
trifle surprising how many faults mar, misdirect or 
nullify legislation concerning matters agricultural. 
X X X 
One of the longest and most stubbornly contested 
strikes that has ever occurred in England has just in- 
gloriously collapsed by the utter defeat of the Dock 
Laborers’ Union at Hull, Yorkshire, one of the most 
important ports in the country. On April 7 the 
unionists struck to force the Shipping Federation to 
employ union workers exclusively ; they repeatedly 
fiercely assailed the men who took their places, and, 
though the latter ate and lodged on board the ships, 
a gunboat or two and several squadrons of cavalry 
had to be brought into action to aid the police in pro¬ 
tecting them from mob violence. Even the owners 
and clerks of the large shipping houses had to help in 
loading and unloading their vessels, and millions of 
dollars’ worth of damage has been done to the busi¬ 
ness interests of the town, as most of the ether labor 
unionists struck to aid or sympathize with the dockers, 
and this paralyzed all business. According to the 
agreement just reached, the strikers will be allowed 
to return to work when there are vacancies for them. 
Non-union men now at work or who may hereafter 
be employed are not to be molested, and employers 
are free to dismiss or refuse to employ union men who 
may be guilty of threatening non union employees. 
Moreover, no agents of the docker3 are to visit the 
ships or workshops while the men are at work, and 
no union emblems are to be worn in working hours. 
Henceforth 21 days’ notice of a strike or lockout must 
be given beforehand by employees and employers. 
This is the worst defeat labor unions have met since 
the collapse of the tremendous strike which, about 
two years ago, paralyzed the entire business of 
New South Wales, Australia, for nearly two months. 
In both cases the demands of the strikers met with 
no public sympathy, in both the employers were reso¬ 
lute, and in both the strikers were ignominiously de¬ 
feated. j j j 
BUSINESS BITS. 
WE recently used a car-load of dried brewery grains in our dairy, 
and regard them as a very wholesome and economical food, both for 
milch cows and brood mares. They were dried by the Long Island 
Drying Company, 36 Forest 8t., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
The late Ex-President Hayes and Ex-Secretary Tracy have been 
patrons of the D. M. Magle Co., breeders of Poland China swine, Ox¬ 
ford, O., and both of these gentlemen have written to the company 
abont their high appreciation of the breed. 
We are In receipt of a very neatly printed little pamphlet on wood 
ashes and their use as a fertilizer, from Mr. Charles Stevens, Napanee, 
Ontario, Canada. Mr. Stevens has been In tbe ashes business a long 
time, and has shipped ashes ali over the United States, and what he 
says about wood ashes Is doubtless based on his own experience and 
observation, and on this account Is worthy of consideration. 
Among the ooursesof study offered by the Chautauqua management 
for the coming summer sessions at Chautauqua are courses In law. The 
courses, we understand, will not consist merely In lectures, but will 
embrace thorough class-room work, and cover the many branches of 
the law, both for students preparing for examination for admission 
to the bar and for lawyers reviewing. The work Is to be under the 
personal Instruction of William C. Sprague, the managing instructor 
of the Sprague Correspondence School of Law, Detroit, Mich. 
There Is no longer any question about the advantages and saving 
In aerating or cooling milk. Not only are time and labor saved; but 
the Impurities of the milk are removed, and the quality of the milk 
and butter vastly Improved. The aerator need not be an expensive 
affair, as a very simple device will answer every purpose, and last for 
yearn with proper care. The Champion, manufactured by the Champ¬ 
ion Manufacturing Company, Cortland, N. Y., Is a very simple Imple¬ 
ment and does Its work well. The low price, too, places It within the 
reach of all. 
Among the many styles of fences that are economizing space by 
taking the place of the old worm rail fence, stone wall and even post 
and board fence, we find expanded metal. This Is formed of diamond 
shape meshes, cut from sheets of soft, tough steel. Each mesh Is en¬ 
tirely Independent of all others and cannot unravel, as they are solid 
at all points of Intersection. While light and neat In appearance.it 
Is practically Indestructible. It Is easily erected, requires no stretch¬ 
ing to put In place, and there are no loose ends or sagging strands. It 
Is equally well suited for gates, window guards, tree boxes, poultry 
yards, corn cribs, eto. The use of expanded metal does not end with 
fencing. When cut In oblong meshes, It Is particularly adapted for 
plastering purposes, and the most skillful builders and architects pro¬ 
nounce It far superior to any lath In use. It prevepts cracks or falling 
plaster and reduces the fire risk to the minimum. This material Is 
manufactured by the Central Expanded Metal Co., at 531 Wood Street, 
Pittsburgh, Pa. The manufacturers publish an Illustrated book of 
particulars, showing tbe various uses and designs of expanded 
metal, which they send to any one upon application. 
