Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1901 — THE FARMER AND PROTECTION. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FARMER AND PROTECTION.

He la Beat Off with a Near-by Market for Hie Prod nets. It is the stock argument of the free traders that protection is of all things Inimical to the interests of the farmer. They grudgingly concede that the manufacturing industries thrive under protection, but they point to the trusts as the legitimate result of the protective policy, unwilling or unable to see that the relation of protection to the trusts Is simply this: Protection allows American industries, to exist. The trusts, so Jar as they are hostile to the general good, are abuses of this condition, not its legitimate or intended effect. The remedy" for any evil caused by the trusts is not free trade, but regulation. Under free trade there possibly would not be any trusts. There wouldn’t be much business of any kind. Amputation of everybody’s legs is not the most sensible remedy for the habit of kicking people. Legs can be regulated without being taken off and especially without depriving the Innocent of something to stand on. The free traders have always contended that the farmers didn’t need any thing to stand on, and lots of farmers honestly believe they would be better off without protection. What do they think of Germany's agrarian tariff, designed to protect the German farmer by the imposition of heavy duties? If protection helps the German farmer, why not the American? Of course, the protection afforded Is different in kind, but the same In effect. This country doesn’t import farm products and Germany does. The American farmer is not in need of protection, except in isolated cases from neighboring countries, from competition in his own products. But when the workingman has no wages he - has no flour and meat and vegetables, and that’s what the farmer has to sell, gmd he doesn’t want to depend too much upon the foreign market for his sales. The peculiar speciousness of the free trade argument lies in its appeal to class cupidity. The prosperity of each class depends upon that of all. Wheat at .$2 and corn at 75 cents on the other side of the appear an ideal condition from the farmer’s view. But It is much better to have $1 wheat and 50-eent corn with money in the pocket of the American consumer to buy it.—Kansas City Journal. The “Son-Protected” Rallroai. Over 5,000,000 persons, or nearly G per cent of our entire population, are dependent on the steam railroads of the country for a livelihood. This is what the Free-Trade Trust would call a “nonprotected industry.” And yet what industry Is there that Is so quickly and so largely affected by the tariff as the railroad business? The following table showing a comparison between the conditions for the years ending June 30, 189 G, and 1900, proves this fact beyond question: June 30, June 30, 1900. 1890. Total miles of track... .259,788 240,129 Locomotives In service.. 37,663 35,950 Cars In service 1,450,838 1,297,649 Employes 1,017,(553 826,020 Wages paid $577,264,841 $468,824,531 Stock paying dividends, per cent - 54.34 29.83 Passengers carried. .576,865.230 511,772,737 Tons of freight... 1,101,680,238 765,891,386 Aver, passenger rate, cts. .2.003 2.019 Aver, freight rate, cts. ...0.729 0.806 Surplus after dividends $87,057,933 $1,534,169 These are significant figures. “Nearly 200,000 more employes, $11,000,000 more wages, 65,000,000 more passengers, 434,000,000 tons more freight, and yet both passenger and freight rates have been reduced, and at the end of the fiscal year 1900 there was a surplus of $87,000,000, against a surplus of sl,500,000 in 1896. The figures for 1901 will not be compiled for some months, but It is known that they will most materially increase the figures of 1900. Railroad business was at a low ebb In 1895 and 1896. But the increased business of the country made possible by the Dingley law has taxed the railroads In every part of the country to their utmost capacity. “Non-protected,” Indeed! Why, it is the greatest single beneficiary of protection in the country. And note how the increased railroad business reverts right back to other industries. There comes an increased demand for rails and ties and locomotives and cars and $100,0Q0,000 more annually in xvages. Think oi the food and clothing and luxuries that sum will buy every years. Think of the education it will pay for, of the homes It will help build. There are no non protected Industries, least of all the railroad business. All Industries are interdependent; all depend for their prosperity on a protective tariff. Oar Merchant Marine. We are accustomed to hearing it said that the United States has lost its old position as a great shipping nation and the flag of Its merchant marine, once conspicuous in every port, has almost disappeared from the seas. This is one of those half truths which deceive more than complete untruths. It is true that our ocean commerce Is carried on foreign bottoms,,but it is not true that the American shipping interest is dead. The Marine Review, in its annual review of shipping interests Just issued, says: “The present generation of shipbuilders have never enjoyed a season of such activity. To equal It one must go back to the clipper days of 1854 and 1855, before iron began to supplant wood In the constructiort of vessels, and when the American shipyards, thanks to the plentitude of constructive material, •were great hives of industry. When Iron was found to be more serviceable than wood the shipbuilding industry in the United States lagged because Ifoo was scarce. The advance of the United Staltes In recent years, however, as a steel-mnklng nation has, through force 1 of circumstances, revived shipbuilding

The coast shipyards are crowded win* passenger and freight steamer*, building for tbe coastwise trade. A considerable business is also being done Iff steel sailing vessels.” It says also that “the year has been one of unexampled activity with tbe shipbuilders on the great lakes, and they already have In hand enough orders to insure continued work for nearly all the plants another year.” The fleet of the great lakes Ims come Into existence since the old clipper days, and the lake tonnage alone probably far exceeds the total tonnage of all American merchant marine in the famous fifties. American ocean commerce has been driven from the seas by the subsidized lines of Europe and will not revive until our Government adopts a like policy. But nevertheless the American shipping interest is great and growing.—Pittsburg Commercial Gazette. Faint Praise. The commendation which Republican agitators for tariff tinkering are receiving from Democrats and free-trad-ers may be thought to make up in some measure for the censure of the great body of Republicans and protectionists. When a manwrong it is always comforting to know that somebody thinks he Is right. But, as a matter of fact, the Republican revisionaries are not called upon to blush hard and red. They are really rated not Very highly by the free-traders and are not considered of much importance. The Democratic view of their value as political allies is expressed by the Binghamton (N. Y.) Loader as follows: “Not all of the Republican opponents of the trust tariff have the moral courage to face the music without flinching, and hence their strictures on the Democrats, who are not to be blamed for enjoying the fun. The fact is, however, that Dingleyism will not be undone without Democratic aid, and it is quite as likely that the job will have to be turned over entirely to Democratic hands. The Republican advocates of a new tariff deal mean well, and they are much to be commended, but the purpose they have in view will not be accomplished until the Democrats are In power In Washington.” Good little boys are the revisionaries, and they serve a useful purpose In “shooing” the geese for the bigger boys to pluck, but they shall have nd hand in the plucking and no share of the feathers. Food Which Makes Him Fat.

Worse than Idle Gossip. The talk about European nations uniting in a tariff war on the United States is funny enough In view of their own relations on the tariff question. The Russian government has semi-officiglly Informed Germany that the proposed new German tariff, If carried Into effect, will result In Russian reprisals. The Austrian government, through Its prime minister, has made a similar statement. Harmony, on the tariff question has not existed in Europe In the memory of man. The talk about a union against the United States is worse than idle gossip.—Allentown (Pa.) Register. Like “American Sratem.” The inconsiderate Porto Ricans continue to make it unpleasant for the distinguished statesmen and prophets who composed the Kansas City platform. Instead of contenting themselves with the absolute free-trade with the United States for which they were held to be pining, they are npw demanding a special tariff duty In their favor against the coffee now coming free into the island from Brazil and the United States. —New York Trtftune. Shall We Change Place*? The domestic exports and imports of the United Kingdom for 1901 as compared with the United States for the same fiscal years were as follows: Exports. Imports. United Kingdom. $1,391,210,638 $2,582,304,121 United States ... 1A60.453.809 822,673,016 Do the free-traders want us to change places with Great Britain? New Steel Plant. A new steel plant, to employ 1.500 men, is to be built at New Castle, Pa., with a capitalization of $2,500,000 to compete with the United States Steel Corporation. This goes to help prove that the so-called “trusts” under protection engender competition, which benefits consumers and workers alike. ConolStency I The man who was cocksure that tin plate could never be made In this country is now urging the reduction of duty to cripple the metal manufacturers. If putting on the duty would not protect, how can removing it have any effect? Answer. We Have the Coin. European financiers have discovered to their chagrin that they can no longer make financial crises at will id the United States. And there are other discoveries coming Id them.— Chatham (N. YJI RanubUoo*. A,