People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1897 — Dingley and the Farmer. [ARTICLE]

Dingley an d the Farmer.

The humorous element in the Dingley tariff bill now being considered by the United States senate is related perhaps more directly to the farmer than to any other class, for it is a palpable attempt to curry favor with the agriculturist without helping him or taking away from any other portion of the community, a thing which cannot be said of the bill in its relation to the manufacturer. Indeed, the Ding ley bill, in so far as it may affect the American farmer helpfully is so much cheap buncombe, and that the agricultural classes will be taken in by so palpable a trick is not to be believed for a moment. In view of the plain land unmistakable statement of ! the granges of the country to | the effect that an import tariff, i high or low, could not benefit ‘ the farmer, Mr. Dingley’s insistence u pon his ill conceived meas- | ure is hardly consistent with his- ’ professions. A glance at the statement of | exports and imports issued by 1 the treasury department indicates now onesided an affair the • high-duty tariff is. Mr. Dingley with a great flourish of trumpets, proclaiming his undying loyalty tu the American farmer, puts a duty of 30 cents a bushel on bar ley to protect the farmer from tiie cheap European barley. But lust year the American farmer e; ported 7,680.331 bush- ! els of buj .ey, while but 837,384 bushels were imported. On corn Mr. Dingley favors a tariff of 15 j cents a lushel. How this will j swell the coffers of the farmer is ! shown by the fact that in 1896 4.33 s bushels were imported, while we sent out to the hungry world 99.992,835 bushels! And oats must be protected, too, or the first, thing we know we shall be feeding our livestock on stuff grown by those dreaded foreign paupers. Last year we were overwhelmed with importations, amounting to 47,506 bushels, while we exported the insignificant bagatelle of 13,012,590 bushels! And rye: we are menaced with a repetition of last year’s awful experience, when 154 bushels of rye were shipped into this country while the unconscious victims slept. But Mr. Dingley hastens to the rescue with a tanff of 10 cents a bushel on rye, so that the American farmer, who exported 988,466 bushels, may not again be in danger of complete commercial annihilation!

Nor is the dairy man forgotten. There were exported 19,373,913 pounds of butter last year, and foreigners succeeded in getting into this country 52,067 pounds of the product of their pauper cows. Hereafter 6 cents a pound will serve to check this disastrous flood. To summarize: the total value of imports for 1896 of barley, corn, oats,, wheat, rye, potatoes, flour and butter aggregated sl,861,553, while the exports foot up the magnificent total of $139,923,632! With exports exceeding imports by nearly 100 times, how can an import duty help the farmer? And if this measure succeed in creating a spirit of retaliation which will result in lessening our export trade, who may estimate the injury it may do to our agricultural interests?