Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1906 — THE TARIFF ON WHEAT. [ARTICLE]

THE TARIFF ON WHEAT.

It Does Not Protect the Farmer, b*t It Plunders Him. The newspapers of Nebraska report wheat thrashing In full blast, with yields of thirty to forty-five bushels per acre, testing sixty pounds and over to the bushel. Nature and the hardworking farmer have evidently done their part. But this prosperity Is somewhat dampened by the price the wheat brings, for the same reports say that this wheat Is selling for 65 cents a bushel at Table Rock and only 64 cents at Beatrice. As the Republicans claim the tariff Is the wellspring of prosperity and have protected wheat with a duty of 25 cents a bushel, why is the price so low when other protected articles are so high? Since the present tariff law was enacted in 1897 the average Increase In prices of all the fanner buys has been 48 per cent, but wheat remains about the same price. There would seem, therefore, to be no advantage to the farmer in the enormously high rates of the Dingley bill, but rather a great disadvantage, as, although receiving about the same price for his wheat, bls clothing, groceries, machinery, farm implements and living generally have so largely increased in cost The statistical abstract of the United States for 1905, page 516, reports the price of wheat for the past thirty years on Dec. 1 of each year, though whether at New York or Chicago the report does not say. In 1896 the price was 72.6 per bushel; in 1897, 80.8; In 1898, 58.2; In 1899, 58.4; In 1900, 61.9; in 1901, 62.4; in 1902, 63; in 1903, 69.5; in 1904, 92.4; In 1905, 74.8. The price of wheat at Chicago as quoted in the RecordHerald, July 20, 1906, was 77 cents, so the freight and expenses from Nebraska points must be about 12 cents a bushel, which, deducted from the price given for the above named ygjirs, would give the approximate price paid in Nebraska in those years and approximately the same In other states according to distance from the main markets. It Is evident, therefore, that the price of wheat has in no way been advanced by the tariff law of 1897, for the price was lower every year after it was enacted until 1904, wben the crop was abort here and very abort In Europe. The previous tariff law of 1894 provided for a tax of 15 per cent ad valorem on wheat, while the present law if on an ad valorem basis would be about 33 per cent Does not this show what a farce the tariff on wheat la aa protection to the fartper, the price of wheat being entirely dependent upon the volume of the crop in this country and Europe and the law of supply and demand? And yet the Republicans claim that the present high tariff has produced prosperity for the farmers.