Show favor of or against discrimination A discriminating dis-criminating protective tariff may be high or low and a free trade tariff equal taxes on imports may also be high or low If there is no discrimination then trade is free whether the tariff tax Is 5 per cent or 100 per cent The present tariff is largely a protective discriminating tariff It prevents tho American farmers from importing the pay for the surplus farm products they export Everything they import manufactures is taxed from 20 to 200 per cent What the manufacturers buy farm products is taxed far less and the tax is mostly a nullity No tax on wheat for example can raise the price of American wheat for our farmers have to export great quantities of it They raise wheat enough for nearly a hundred millions of people while the population of this country does not reach sixtyfive millions The tax wnicn conJ con-J onethird of the pay they receive for this wheat Is a protective tax This is the kind of protective taxation that the Democratic party is seeking to modify They are striving to make the tax fall equally on all branches of Industry not to abolish the tax The present tax is destroying des-troying the farmers and enslaving the wageearners Everything the farmer buys and everything tho workingman buys except ex-cept farm products is bought in a protected pro-tected market at protection prices Excepting Ex-cepting some raw materials everything the manufacturer buys farm products and labor is bought in a free market at free trade prices This discrimination against the farmer and wa earner in favor of the manufacturer clearly needs reformation This is what is meant by Democratic free trade |