Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1903 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

Aitatng in ths Wrong Dlrecttlon. The American Society of Equity of Indianapolis has Issued a bulletin to the farmers of the United States, demanding an Increase In the price of wheat, arguing that the minimum price of wheat should be $1 a bushel and urging the farmers of the United States not to sell for less than fl. The society was organized a year ago with that city as national headquarters to maintain higher prices for farm products by co-operation of the farmers of the country and this is the first formal demand for the increase In prices. The bulletin reasons that because of tbe low visible supply of wheat and the high cost of production owing to high prices for most other commodities, that $1 at Chicago Is only an equitable price for wheat. It says: “Farmers, keep this matter In mind, keep dollar wheat at Chicago, before you, and you will get it as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets In the west. We Implore you, don’t be fools.” It may be heresy, but we would like to suggest to the Equity Society that there is another and an easier and more certain way for the farmers to accomplish the result aimed at, and it does not involve the risk, and almost certain failure, of attempting to imitate the manufacturing trusts. The farmers have never succeeded, and probably never will succeed, in forming a trust which will enable them to force up the price of any important product 40 per cent. Not only

are there too many farmers, very widely scattered, but they are not, as are the manufacturers, protected by tariff duties on their products—except on sugar and a few other rtant products which we do not raise In sufficient quantities to export largely. In the case of wheat, the price Is fixed in Liverpool and It is not certain that if our farmers should refuse to sell and we ceased entirely to export, that the foreign price would reach the equivalent of dollar wheat at Chicago. But the tariff on manufactured goods Is effective because there are comparatively few manufacturers in any line, because they often have a monopoly of the mines or materials used and because they usually have potential or actual competition from foreign goods in our home markets —which wheat growers do not have. Because of these and other reasons, the manufacturers have been able to form successful trusts and to take advantage of the high tariff duties. They have thus forced up the prices that the farmers must pay for manufactured goods an average of about 40 per cent since the Dingley tariff bill became law. The prices of many articles, such as barb wire, wire nails, tin plate, window glass, etc., have been forced up 100, 200 or 300 per cent in our markets, thougii sold at very low prices to foreigners. If tariff duties on trust products were taken off, manufactured goods which now sell for »1 would sell for only 00 cents. The farmer could then buy ns much with his bushel of wheat, selling at'7s cents st Chicago, as he would get If he could force, the price of wheat u* to sl, while paying the present high trust prices for his goods. It is entirely feasible for the farmers, by voting for no tariff on trust goods, to reduce the cost of what they havs to buy. It is not at all feasible for them to get together long enough to artificially raise the price of wheat 30 per cent or 40 per cent. The farmers are the backbone of protection In this country, although, as a leading republican —Hon. Ben Butterworth —said in 1890, "The manufacturers and the Trusts get the protection and-the profits of the tariff—the farmer gets the husks and humbug.” As was clearly shown by the 1902 election, the workingmen of the greet cities voted against the trusts end the high tariff which have so greatly in-

creased the cost of living, while the farmers voted strongly In favor of both. Just why farmers should continue to vote for a system that takes money out of their pockets and puts none into them, is one of our unsolved political problems. If Instead of agitating for Impossible dollar wheat, (unless produced by natural causes In tbe rest of the world) the Equity Society will advise farmers to discuss the tarlff-trußt question In their grange and other organizations and to vote for their own pockets all the time, jpst as the manufacturer* have always been doing, great good will result, pot only to the farmers but to all laborers, mechanics and professional The ccßt of living will be greatly reduced and entirely at the expense of the trusts. In fact, both farmers and laborers generally will be benefited by the greater amount of manufactured goods which would be used, if they were sold at more reasonable prices. As more factory employes would be needed to make more goods, not only would factory wages tend to rise, but tbe farmer would soon have a bigger home market for bis products. The doom of protection will be sealed when the farmers begin seriously to discuss the tariff question and to realize what it means to them. This discussion Is what the Republicans are trying to prevent. They tell the farmer that the tariff is politics and must therefore be tabooed in the grange and

other farmers organizations. What nonsense. The tariff is business; just every-day common dollars-and-cents business to the farmers. When the farmers find .this out and begin to get an Idea of what “protection” has cost them they will be mad all through and will be looking for somebody to kick them all around a ten-acre field.— Byron W. Holt. Roosevelt’s Words and Acta. In one of his speeches, Mr. Roosevelt said: “Xo law will ever make a coward brave, a fool wise, or a weakling stjong. All the law can do is to shape things that no Injustice shall be domt by one to another and so that each man shall be given the chance to show the stuff that is in him.” And yet Mr. Roosevelt is the faithful champion of a tariff law that takes money out of the pockets of the many to replenish the pockets of the few. He objects to the destruction of the shelter, which the trusts find In the tariff and he does not appear to be disturbed because under Republican administration the law Is molded to shape things so that justice is done, to the benefit of a comparatively small number of men to th» great disadvantage of the masses.—The Commoner. The worst feature about the Post Office scandal is that so many Congressmen must have been aware of tome of the misdoings and participated In the plunder to the extent of getting their friends appointed to office or tjie salaries of those already there considerably raised.

Uncle Sam —This reminds .fire of the old sitar Route day*.—New York Herald.