Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — THE M’KINLEY BILL AND THE AMERICAN FARMER 3. [ARTICLE]

THE M’KINLEY BILL AND THE AMERICAN FARMER 3.

American Economist. ; _ • " No schedule in the McKinley bill was frained with greater care than the!schedule of duties on agricultural products and provisions. Not only did farmers and agricultural societies have hearings before the committee, but the members of that committee spent bo little £ime' in the Construction of a schedule that would give the American farnjer more thorough protection and a better ,hold onjthe home market. Tlsat their efforts did not result in failure is shown by the following ing the imports .of various competing farm products (or finished'prpducts of wlficb the raw material competes) in the years'!Bß9 and 189.1—the years immediately preceding and following the enactment of the McKinley billtogether with changes in rates of duty made by the new-law : V-‘ ■

Projection fob Farmebs in the McKinley 8i1i... | ■■ ■. 1 $ > Articles.; Late Duty,. McKinley Imports, Imports, j .\\'\ i f Duty. 1889. • 1891. | Horses .1..... 20 per oent *30 per head.... *8.059.34< $1,073,879 Cattle, . .. ..U 20 per cent.... llOner head... 318.9:9 113,157 Barley. I. J.. 10c. per bus#.. !»c. per bushel ■ t,2ilW 1,031,543 Oats , lOc. per bush.. 15c.®oc bushel 8 53 • 7,81# 0atmea1...... U.J.. 143. per'lb.'..*., ic. per lb 59,010 28,588 ***•••» |.:..L|..|.. Free. f.S.. Bc. per d0z....‘ 2,071,614 533.497 Hay..lf.. ~ .;. f 3 per t0n.;.... $4 per ton 1.183,192 451.883 Hops . j.j....... L j.... |Bc. per lb :.... 15c. per 1b.... 1,1C5,«0I j I,fB>.KB Flaxseed & linseed 10c. per bush.. 30c. per bushel 4,136,730 835,409 4; 5 I f 75c. per twfc. 43 pjrt* Jbj... 1 •« j | Leaf tobacco. \ 13,773,710 8,398,619 * . UO - . per lb .ISOc. per 1b... J. . » cigarette* & t !9.50_ per lb §l.'sQs per lb V »0,7 034 3740915 •bheroots .... i. . .1. | and 2,» per ct and 15 per ct / ..,917,0.44 8,74~,3f0 /4ot»lS ~ 1...1 ■ 83.1.875.057 j 816.780 835. Larger markets for American j \ tl 4,054.223

Although the articles given in this table are but a few of the many that compete with the products of American farms, they are enough-.’to show that the effect of the McKinley Tariff has been to greatly decrease agricultural imports, and, by theataount of that decrease, to put money into the pockets of our farmers. 1 The Democratic House votes to tax sugar, which cannot be produced in this country in sufficient quantities to suit the demand, and votes to free tin, which can be produced in this country under adequate protectiwa. The tax on sugar is added to the cost of the commodity bfecause of a lack of competition in this country to keep the price down. tax on tin is not added to the commodity, for tbereasonthat tiu ean be produced in this country, thereby giving employment to all men who engage in its production or manufacture. If the tax on imported tin is remoyed foreign producers will at once reduce the price so long as they are threatened with competition on this side of the ocean, and increase the price the moment possibility of competition is removed. If protected until their business is established here, competition will reduce...Jthflu prl'CSTn Wd ffiahufactufed'article until it would be lower than we could ever hope to have it under British and foreign -monopoly. Home production of tin will give employment to thousands of American laborers. Thus it will be readily seen that the Democracy favors foreign labor and capital as against American labor and capital. The Republican party favors free sugar and home produced tin, and the Republican party is true to its purposes and promises.

STILL DOING ITS OWN TALKING. The McKinley bill is doing its own talking concerning its effect on the production aud prices of carpets and linens, which are two of the articles that the free traders judged to be peculiarly open to attack. The new tariff has increased the number of American mills employed in the production of these things,and by increasing tbeir production has decreased their price. American made carpets are now as cheap in America as English made ones are in England. But there is more profit in carpet here than there, because the American people buy more car pet than the English people, and because a home market always is more profitable than a foreign one. This condition is attracting the attention of English and makers. A telegram in yesterday’s Inter Ocean announced the pturpose of one Irish firm to establish a linen factory ia New York. The cost of machinery used by it will be $90,000; and this will be spent in American shops. A few weeks ago a firm that has been making carpets in England for two centuries moved its plant to the 'United States. The McKinley bill is doing its own talking. The effect of the establishment of new linen and carpet industries In the United States, or the enlarging of the old ones, cannot fail to benefit the fariolßrs, for while we have been importing flax products to the extent of $?0,000,000 a year we have been destroying 1,070,090 tons of flax straw every year. Now flax straw is used as body for many kinds of carpet, and the English firm whose removal to this country we have hoted declares American flax straw to bo superior to that of any other country for carpet manufacture. But while creating an increased demand for certain farm products as raw materia! of it also enlarges the .demand for these farm products that are used as food for operatives. The bill is doing its own talking. ,*