Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1888 — FACTS ABOUT THE AMERICAN FARMER. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT THE AMERICAN FARMER.

What He Does and What Is Done for Him —Overworked and Bobbed. [From Puck.] There is one man in this country who works harder than most of the men who are organized into labor unions. He gets up between four and five in the morning and looks after his live stock before breakfast. His breakfast, when it comes, consists probably of salt pork and pie or some form of hot bread. After breakfast he goes to work in the field, and there he works until the time comes for his midday dinner, which is about as nutritious and wholesome as his earlier meal. After dinner he works until supper time. His evening is likely occupied in mending harness, soaking com for sowing, or doing any one of the countless “odd jobs” which farm life calls for, according to the season. After a year of such toil this man is if he can make enough out qf his crops—and, how-

ever industrious he may be, this is a matter which depends largely upon the weather—to pay the interest on his mortgage and start fairly for the coming twelvemonth. And yet you are poor. Your profit on your sales does little more than cover your expenses. Does not this strike you as an anomalous state of things? Is it not worth your while to reason out the why and wherefore of the anomaly? You sell at a profit ou the actual cost of production, and yet your business can scarcely be called profitable. Why is this? Is it not because your expenses are greater than they should be? Is it not because you have to pay for almost everything that you buy more than any other farmer in civilized countries is obliged to pay? Make your calculations for yourself. You pay more for iron, in all its forms, than any European pays. That means you pay a premium on all agricultural implements—on plows, cultivators, spades, shovels, rakes, hoes, thrashers, corn-cutters,, pitchforks, manure forks, trowels, mowing machines, scythes, sitkies, axes, hammers, hatchets, knives, nails, tacks—and everything, big or little, into the composition of which that metal enters.

And this is not all. You are paying a premium on a great many other things—on your clothing, tor instance; on the clothing of your wife and the clothing of your children. Indirectly, you are paying the tax on the clothing of your farm-hands and the women employed in your household. In order that American manufacturers should be encouraged, you are paying a duty to all American manufacturers. You are told that a duty is levied on importations of foreign goods. But you pay this duty if you buy the foreign goods. You pay it, in part, if you buy ths American goods of the same sort; for the American manufacturer naturally puts his prices as near as possible to the mark fixed by law for the foreigner. If the European manufacturer cannot sell a yard of a certain sort of cloth in the American market for less than ten cents, why should the American who manufactures the same sort of cloth sell it for less than nine cents, to keep the market for himself ? Perhaps he could sell it for five cents and make a profit, but why should he? In the scheme of business morality there is no reason why he should. And he does not.

A tax is levied upon foreign imports. Who pays it? The foreign manufacturer? No; he gets his price from the American importer. The American manufacturer? No; he makes his price, as nearly as he can, what • the foreign manufacturer charges. Who pays the tax, then? Well, you do, for one. You pay it on almost everything you buy. You pay it on almost everything you by dollar. You pay the fraction of a cent on the tin-plated iron spoon with which you stir your corn-meal, boiled into what is called “suppawn” in New York, “hasty pudding” in New England, and “mush" in Illinois and the rest of the United States. You pay sl, perhaps, on your plow, and $5 or $lO, it may be, on your mowing-machine or your thrasher. You pay a dime on a felt hat that keeps she sun off your head all the long summer s day; you pay from $1 to $lO on the clothes you wear. Cent by cent, dime by dime, dollar by dollar this tax is collected out of your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly expenses. You will be told, we suppose, that it is your duty to pay this tax for the good of the country. J udge for yourself how far it is for the good of the country by a simple study of easily accessible figures. Of you who are engaged in agricultural operations there are in this country more than 7,000,001). Of those engaged in trades or manufactures which subject them to foreign competition, the highest official estimate is under 1)06,000. So that you 7,670,000 are taxed to support 906,000. And of those 906,000, how many receive their fair proportion of the tax you pay? We cannot tell you. But you can see for yourselves that every year thousands of workmen employed in “protected" industries are clamoring for higher wages and “striking” to get them. Don’t you think it would pay you to find out where your money goes?