Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1892 — Agriculture and the Tariff. [ARTICLE]

Agriculture and the Tariff.

“Our civilization rests upon agriculture. To it every strong state must [ look, not only for bread, but in large measure for men who are to uphold its society. We have won and maintained our institutions in peace and war by the aid of the sturdy citizens who were born and bred upon farms; therefore it is the first duty of our legislators to take care that the laws do not endanger the pros- ; perlty of those who till the soil. “The present condition of agriculture in New England shows clearly that the ! protective tariff is harmful to the Interests of the farmer. Thirty years ago this part of the United States contained thousands of small farms which are now abandoned. In every neighborhood we see these abandoned homesteads falling in ruins and their fields returning to forests. The traveler in these districts feels that some great plague has fallen upon the people. Thus in the towns of Tisbury and Chilmark, in Dukes County, Massachusetts, more than three-fifths of the district farmsteads, only eight remain, and the greater part of tho fields has grown up in brushwood. Several of tho New England States have been led to the extraordinary measure of making a census of their abandoned farms, with the hope that foreigners might be induced to buy them. Altnough these lists are imperfect, in that they take account only of thoso places where the houses and fields are still fit for use, the results are startling. They show that the small farmer Is rapidly being driven from the land which for centuries has maintained his forefathers in prosperity. The census of 1890 shows a loss of population in 930 towns. In New England. One reason why the small farmers have been driven to abandon their fields is found in the fact that the protective tariff greatly increases the expenses of their housesholds. In a family of five persons engaged in farming, and living with strict economy, at least three hundred and fifty dollars lias to _£>e spent for clothing, household utensils, farming tools and the materials which are used in repail ing buildings and fences. On the average more than fifty dollars of this 'sum is due to the protective tariff. This tax is great enough to make a life-and-death difference in the struggle of a man who has to depend for his success on his own strength and the natural resources of a small tract of ordinary New England land. With that amount of money on the right side of his account ho can subsist his family and put by something for his old age. Without it he must full. When the system of the protective tariff was begun,-the farmers were promised that the manufactories which it would induce would afford them a high-priced market for tho products of their fields. This theory has proved to be utterly in error; except in,the case of tho market gardens near the great cities, which are owned by men*of capital and tilled by hired labor, no part of our agriculture has had any considerable advantage from the establishment of factories in New England. It Is now made clear by experience, as it is evident from reason, that the price of our soil products is determined by the market rates of European countries where our surplus is sold. The notion of the advantages of a homo market is shown by the facts to be fallacious. Instead of being a blessing to the small farmer, the tariff is a curse which stealthily works for his ruin.—Prof. N. S. Shaler, member of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture.