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Farmers Ought Not To Protest

Farmers Ought Not To Protest image
Parent Issue
Day
26
Month
January
Year
1894
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The republicans thought when they had passed the McKinley bill, whereby a large part of the revenues of the gvernment were cliverted from the treasury into the pockets of favored individuals and trusts, thus laying the foundation for a terasury deficit, that they had efEectually prevented any reform of the tariff. Dut in this they reckoned without the people, Now, the people havingcommandeda revisión, that party is still found using every possible ineans to prevent it by arraying various interests against it. An especial effoit is being made to get the farmers to protest against the passage of the Wilson bill, on the gronnd tliat it is unjust to thetn in this that it removes all duty froni wool. while it leaves a portion of the duty on woolen goods. Before doing this, liowever, the Pontiac Post advises all farmers to teflect over certain facts which are so plainly and ably stated'as to lead to thtir reproduction here. They are as follows: i. - The experienge of the past twenty-five years, since the high wool tariiï of 1867 was adopted, has proved, as comtnon sense ought to have dictated even without the experiment, that a high tariff 011 foreign .wool does not enhance the price of American wool. 2. - If the YVays and Means Committee had atteinpted to remove all the duty froni manufacturers of woolens at one stroke they would have arrayed the conservative tariffreform sentiment of Congress and the country against the bill to such an extentas to have made the defeat of the bill certain, and the cause of tariff reform would have been set back for a generation. ;. - The tariit on woolens does en hance their price and thus artificially fosters the business of the manufacturer. A man that has grown used to a stimulant nceds it. To take it all away at once would be disastrous. A temporary relapse of the woolen manufacturing industry in the United States would be disastrous to the people, especially to the wool growers, since these manufacturers are the only market the American farmer has for his wool. We export none. We raise only about a third of what we use. To cripple the woolen manufacturer is to cripple the wool grower's only market. 4. - These men would gladly seize the opportunity to close their milis, and discharge their workmen in order to frighten the reform party from taking away the bonus which government now gives them. Only the desire of gain keeps some of them from doing that now. But now they have no excuse. They will be held more by free wool than hurt by the reduction of the tariff on woolens. The period of their greatest prosperity ever known in the United Sjatesjwill follow inevitably the passage of the Wilson bill. Their prosperity means a better price for the farmer's wool. 5. The radical free trader should consider that half a loaf is better than none, especially when so many different lines of private industry have been taken into partnership by the federal government and fostered by the robber tariff that it is impossible to get anything but a very moderate measure through Congress. But a tax 011 raw materials is the very corner-stone of the castle wherein the protected barons, the trusts and all the beneficiaries of the treasure wrung from the sweat and toil of the people have reveled in security these thirty years. When this stone is removed the whole palace Of iniquity will totter and fall. With the passage of the Wilson bill the doom of protection is sealed. 6. Even if the tariff did enhance the price of American wool, still the farmer would gain a hundredfold more in the reduced price of clothing, machinery, etc., than he would lose on his wool. Moreover, he will get woolen clothing in place of the miserable shoddy in which the tariff has clothed the laboring classes of America. The democrat who signs a protest against the Wilson bill because he has a flock of sheep thinks more of his own barn-yard than of the welfare of humanity and the prosperity of the. republic.

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News