Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1888 — “A TARIFF-CURSED STATE.” [ARTICLE]

“A TARIFF-CURSED STATE.”

What the Michigan Farmers Pay for “Protection.” Editor cf the New York Times • You published a few days ago statistics furnished by the Commissioner of Labor, showing the extent to which the farms of Michigan are mortgaged. The statistics are misleading for many reasons, one of which is that they must be obtained mainly from public records, and these for the most part show only the original amounts, without the payments that may have been made. Then it often happens that mortgages are paid in full and carelessly left undischarged of record. From somewhat extended observation I am led to the conclusion that the farms of Michigan are on the average less burdened by debt than those of some other Northwestern States. Michigan, however, is a tariff-cursed State, and if its farmers once awake to the fact of their burdens from oppressive taxation they will insist upon some relief. The tariff on lumber is peculiarly severe upon them; nearly every farmer in Michigan has