Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1889 — THE LOGIC OF EVENTS. [ARTICLE]

THE LOGIC OF EVENTS.

HOW IT IS TEACHING ITS LESSON TO THE TILLER OF THE SOIL. The Farmer Is Learning the True Inwardness of a High Tariff—The Work of Education Is Being Helped Along by Practical Object Lessons. [From the Salt Lake Herald] Nothing better illustrates how the farmers of this country are learning the true inwardness of a high tariff than the recent mass meetings held in nearly every county of several of our greatest agricultural States to denounce the action of the twine trust in raising the price of binding twine. The Mills bill put twine and sisal grass, from which the twine is made, on the free list. The farmers, however, w ere told by Republicans that if twine were cheap, their wheat would be cheap. So the farmers voted for Harrison. As it became certain that the Mills bill would not pass, the twine trust advanced the price of twine up to the limit allowed by the present tariff, and will advance it still further if the Senate bill passes. Now the farmers are indignant at receiving a little of the good thing they voted for. Twine is dear, but wheat is not; and they are kicking themselves for believing that dear twine w ould make dear wheat. It is the same with iron, which, in a hundred forms, every farmer uses. The farmer is gradually learning, to his sorrow, that high-priced iron does not make high-priced v’heat, but just the opposite—low’-priced wheat. Approximately, five days’ labor in America win earn (or raise) ten bushels of wheat, but Republicans tell us will earn (or make) only half a ton of pig iron. Five days’ labor in Scotland will earn only five bushels of wheat, but win make one ton of pig iron. Therefore, if the American farmer were permitted to exchange his wheat for Scotch pig iron, he would get a ton of pig iron for five days’ labor; but if the farmer is not allowed to exchange wheat for iron he must work ten days for each ton of pig iron he gets,, and the Scotchman must w’ork ten days for five bushels of wheat. And such is the case. The Government does not permit the farmer to supply himself with iron in this natural and easy way. The farmer must, of course, sell his surplus wheat; and, since farmers constitute at least half our entire population, they still have a surplus of wheat, beef, etc., after supplying the otherhalf of the population. What shall they do with this surplus? They must either sell it or give it away. Democrats say farmers have the right to sell this surplus to foreigners without being subjected to a fine for doing so. Republicans say farmers must not receive pay (imports) from abroad in payment for this surplus wheat, or the Government will collect a fine from them for doing so. Thus a farmer has 1,000 bushels of surplus wheat, worth $1 per bushel, let us say. His neighbors have all the wheat they need, but would buy iron from him if he had it, so he sends his wheat to where pig iron sells at $lO per ton. He then waits for his 100 tons of iron to arrive. When it arrives, however, he finds he must pay $4.50 on each ton (or $450 on the 100 tons) before he lands the iron, and so he is obliged to sell forty-five of the 100 tons in order to pay the tariff tax on it. The result is, he gets only fifty-five tons of iron for his wheat, instead of the 100 he expected to get. Then he begins to reflect, and discovers that it took 450 out of his 1,000 bushels of wheat to pay his fine at the custom house for receiving pay (imports) for his surplus wheat. The result, too, would be precisely the same to him if the custom house officials had kept back 450 bushels of his wheat before it was sent abroad. The Government protects Carnegie and the other iron masters from competition by the farmers, and fines the latter class for presuming to buy and sell iron. It is the same with sugar. Three miles off our coast, or anywhere on the high seas, sugar sells at 4J cents. If the farmer were permitted to receive sugar for wheat, he would supply himself and sell sugar to all his neighbors at a profit of five cents a pound. But the Government will not permit the farmer to sell the same articles that Claus Spreckles and the Republican sugar trust sell, so the whole people buy sugar at nine cents from the few millionaires instead of at five cents from the millions of farmers. It is the same with nearly the whole tariff list. The farmers’ surplus products, amounting by actual valuation to 75 per cent, of all our exports, are taxed 30 per cent, of their value when the pay for them arrives. The farmers were told that imports must be stopped, but were not told that these imports are the pay received in exchange for the farmers’ exports. To stop imports is to stop exports, and hence to stop farmers from having any surplus products. It is the farmers’ surplus that pays the carpenter, the mason, the blacksmith, the schoolmaster, the lawyer, and the doctor.