OCR Text |
Show THE REPUBLICAN HARVEST. Democrats and free traders are fond of taunting taunt-ing Protectionists and Republicans with the assertion as-sertion that it Is claimed that the Republican party is responsible for good harvests. The fact is that no Republican speaker or writer ever made such a claim, but it is also true that Republicans and Protectionists do claim that the value of the farmer's crops is due in a large measure to Republican Re-publican legislation and to the operation of our splendid protective tariff. The American Agriculturist, Agri-culturist, one of the highest authorities in the country announces that the value of our agricultural agricul-tural products will probably this year exceed that of any previous year In our history. Yet our crops In amount will not be extraordinary, nor have they been during the past w years. In 189G the corn crop in particular measured nearly a billion bil-lion bushels more than some years since, and yet in value the farmer only received about one-half which he has been receiving for the past few years. This is where the Republicans' claim that the tariff is a benefit to the farmer is fully substantiated. sub-stantiated. The full measure of employment which has been enjoyed by our working classes during the past few years, their high wages and the consequent high standard of living have given giv-en us a home market and a purchasing power which has brought to the farmer this large prosperity pros-perity and great reward in return for his labors. The farmers of the United States according to a census basis will this year receive nearly six billions of dollars in return for their labor, and if we should include in this estimate the value of what the farmer himself and his family consume the amount would approximate the stupendous sum of ten billions of dollars. These figures are indeed marvelous, but none the less true. Yet they would be cut in half were we living under the operation of low tariff or what would be the same thing, free trade. |