Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — TARIFF SHOT. [ARTICLE]

TARIFF SHOT.

The Home Market for Wheat of Which Protectionists Boast. In March, 1890, the statlstican of the Department of Agriculture published a report showing the production and distribution of the wheat crop of 1888. In this report he “gave away” the home market, which protectionists boast has been established by high tariffs. The following are his figures, graphically illustrated: Total wheat crop In 1888, 415,868,000 bushels, of which 181,750,078 bushels were consumed by the farmers themselves in the county where grown, and 54,012,702 bushels were used by the farmers for seed. Of the remainder, 88,600,743 bushels were exported, leaving 91,504,437 bushels, a part of which was held in reserve, a part consumed In markets claimed by no one to have been built up by protection, and the remainder consumed in home market provided by protection. In 1888, or sixty-two years after Clay launched his “American System” to provide a “home market” for our surplus farm produce, we find that the boasted home market takes less than 25 per cent of our crop of wheat, exclusive of that reserved for seed, while we continue to export over per cent of it.