Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1890 — Protection for Farm Products. [ARTICLE]

Protection for Farm Products.

Contention that the tariff imposed on imported agricultural products is of no avail by way of protection to American farmers will no more stand the test of facts and figures than most, other assertions of the industrious attorneys for free foreign trade. Under the existing law a tariff is imposed on the principal farm pioducts, as follows: Wheat, 20 cents per bushel; corn, oats, barley, and rye, each 10 cent 9; potatoes, 15 cents; live stock {other than breeding), twenty per cent on value. The effect of these charges, according to the great apostle of free trade, who never lets slip the opportunity iff lieiterating his creed, is that tari If taxation is not limited tothcconsumcr of imported article.-, hut the duties imposed upon such articles penult a corresponding increase in price to be laid upon the domestic productions of the same kind.

Every sensible business man, with the price lists of the different trade centers, befoiie him, can see that tins is not true; while it is a fact that tlie tariff rateb above Tjwjtetf serre as a check to nii i nffux of iotoign grown products which would, m the absence of such baric r, seriously embarrass market pnees in the United States. Foreign producers pay the tariff on such of these products as they send here, and hence cannot afford to sell them as cheaply as they could and would sell if permitted to bring their products here free. What they thus pay in tariff goes into the public treasury, and by so much reduces the amount that otherwise would be raised from our own citizens. But notwithstanding the fact that foreign fanners are taxed for the privilege of selling their products in our markets, they did send here during the last fiscal year staple farm products to the value of nearly $14,000, C00, viz: Breadstuffs, $6, 034,272, vegetables, $4,455,354, live animals, $3,270,277. After paying over two aud three-quarter million dollars as tariff, these were sold in competition with the pioducts of American iuirns. It is with such facts as these that free trade attorneys should be confrouted when pleading with the farmer for his vote against the policy of piotection for American labor. The American farmer can no more successfully compete against the cheap grown wheat of India and Rusaiu than the American manufacturer can compete with his foreign competitor in making cheap goods. The tariff of 20 cents per bushel removed, aud the price of American grown wheat would come down, or foreign grown wheat would be sold in its stead. Proof of this lies in a comparison of market quotations from the commercial centers of Europe and the United States. And farmers will find more profit in such comparison than in listening to the confusing diatribes of free trade advocates..

Winamac Republican. Theconvfcutiqn for nominating a Republican candidate for Congress m the Tenth District meets at Rensselaer on the 28th of this month. We know of no candidate that will be before the convention except our. present Congressman, W. D. Owen, and we hope to see him receive the 'nomination by acclamation. Mr. Owen/ has madd an excellent record, and occupies a position in the House where ho wields considerable influence. A new man would hav6 to serve several terms befoie he could be as useful as Mr. Owen who has remained at his post during the whole time of this long session while many other members have been off at summer resorts or laying pipes for re-nomination.