People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1894 — The Financial Question vs. the Tariff. [ARTICLE]

The Financial Question vs. the Tariff.

The following table shows the amount of tariff paid by the average fanner on the necessaries of life which he buys each year. It shows the amount he would pay under the tariff law of 1861, the McKinley law, and the present democratic law; Dutiable Ain't articles. cons'd Tariff. Tariff. Tariff '6l. *9O ’M Sugark» 00 HO 00 I f 70 Cott'n g00d».... 25 00 576 •7 14 576 Wool'll" ....90 00 640 11 06 *33 K m'de cloth's 30 00 6 K 10 95 15 60 Hau & Capa... 10 00 160 463 250 Iron goods.,>■.. WOO 230 206 145 Cutlerys 00 115 155 142 Barbed wire... 30 00 016 514 342 F'rm luipl'ta .. 20 00 692 031 bhoes & boots 20 00 461 400 333 Medicine 10 00 2 30 3 33 3 33 Furniture 25 00 5’6 646 500 Cl'ka. watches 500 115 120 100 Horses 5 00 1 16 83 Jewelry 500 100 166 129 Crockery 600 190 17? 115 Cattle 5 06 1 50 83 This is all there is, or can be io the tariff question. Take the McCinley law at its worst, and it requires the payment of $83.61 on the $265 worth, white the new law at its best requires the payment of $63.09 on the same amount, while the republican tariff on the same amount and on the same articles required $62.49. Can anyone believe that these differences could produce the great difference in the condition of the county, and the financial tistress of to-day?

Let us take as the average crop of the eottoh farmer ten bales weighing 500 tons each, a total of 5,000 lbs. We find that tire price of cotton in 1872, the year before silver was demone.ized, was from 18 to 25 cents ner pound, the average price being about 20 cents. The ten »ales of cotton at that time, at 20 cents per pound, would net he farmer SI,OOO. The same ten bales of cotton now at the present price, 6c per pound •vould net him $300.' We find from these figures that some now or some how else the cotton farmer has been robbed of S7OO on his year's production of cotton. The crop that he produced in 1872 cost no more labor than the crop he produced in 1894, then why is this difierence of S7OO.

Let us see now how it is with the wheat raiser. Take 1,000 bushels of wheat as the average crop. In 1872, the year before silver was demonetized, wheat .vas worth from $10.65 to §2.10 per bushel. The 1,000 bushels at #1.75 in 1872 would have netted the farmer §1,750. Tolay the price of it is 50c per oushel, and the 1.000 bushels bring the farmer §SOO. He gets f 1,250 less for h ; s wheat crop in 1894 than he did in 1872. Why is this? What is it that robs the farmer of this §1,250? Is it the tariff? From the above facts we see that the cotton farmer paid §63.09 tariff in 1872. and received §I,OOO for ,his cotton crop, now in the year 1894 he pays $62.49, just 60 cents less than in 1872. and receives §3OO for his crop, a loss of §7OO. The wheat farmer paying the amount of tariff as above, received §1.750 for his crop in 1872, now he receives §SOO, a loss of §1,250. When the farmers of this country study the financial question, and realize how they have been robbed by the demonetization of silver and the destruction of the greenbacks, there will be but one issue, and that will be the money question.

J. H. TURNER.

Sec. Nat. Com. People’s Party.