Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1889 — Infatuated Farmers. [ARTICLE]

Infatuated Farmers.

The South Dakota Farmers’ Alliance at Huron declared for prohibition, the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people, government control of railroads, the Australian ballot system, and pretty nearly everything else "under the sun, but it refused to consider the one matter which concerns the farmors more than all others combined, and which they should be the most eager to reform —the tariff. While three-fourths of the farms of the country are heavily mortgaged and the agricultural class is yearly becoming poorer, it is almost inconceivable that a body of presumably intelligent farmers could assemble without vigorously denouncing the system which is rapidly impoverishing the farming industry. Yet these Dakota farmers promptly voted down a resolution demanding a free market to buy as well as to sell in, and thus deliberately declared that they would rather pay the ruinous protection prices for their necessaries than to got them at much lower rates. There is not much hope for the farmers while such ineffable stupidity prevails among them. As the class most oppressively burdened by the tariff, they should be the first to get their eyes open to its evils. But the contrary is true. The farmers are slower to perceive the iniquities of protection than any other class, and, while the workingmen at manufacturing centers vote it down as a fraud and a humbug, they have become the bulwarks of the system. The resolution, had it not been promptly squelched, might have led to a profitable discussion. It states what is a necessity for the farmers unless their industry is to go from bad to worse. They must buy in an open market as well as sell in one. To sell at free-trade prices, which they most always do, no matter how high the tariff, and buy at protection prices, is a losing game. The tariff does not allow them an equitable exchange of their produce. It has greatly reduced the exchange value of whatever they have to sell. Its practical working is to compel the farmer, through the Government tax if he trades abroad, or in enhanced prices if ho trades at home, to exchange two bushels of wheat for the thing he wants, for which, were there no tariff taxes, ho would exchange but one. If the farmer cannot see that it takes more wheat to pay protection prices than it takes to pay free-trade prices, there is no help for him. His profits will diminish and his industry will continue to decline. —Chicago Herald.