Speech #500039612

All incumbrances. every hindrance. every ounce of weight that can be removed from our products should be taken away. and American energy. resources. invention. skill. and genius given a fair opportunity of winning primacy in the commerce of the world. When this grand consummation shall occur. and occur it must. sooner or later. and the sooner the better. the products of the workingmans labor. no longer confined to the home market. as now. with its fitful seasons of high demand and glut. nor to the manipulations of "combines" and "trusts." will find steady sale in all the markets of the world. and thus will be insured steady employment to the labor which creates them. The agricultural people of the United States whose exported products for the last fiscal year were 74 per cent. of the total of our exports. against 19 per cent. of manufactured products exported. who have maintained the balance of trade in favor of this country by sending out to foreign countries the products which alone bring gold. the profits of whose business scarcely average 3 per cent. on the capital invested. as against S to 10. 12. 15. 20. 25. and in some instances as high as 40 per cent. paid in dividends by manufacturing enterprises. whose wheat and cotton are priced in Liverpool in direct competition with the wheat and cotton of India. and the wheat of Russia raised by human cattle on wages of from 6 to 10 cents per day. their wheat now run down to 73 cents per bushel and cotton to 8 cents per pound. while they. constituting more than half of all the labor of the United States. are being taxed an average of 46 per cent. on the entire cost of both living and dying under the existing tariff professedly for the protection of American labor against competition with the pauper labor of Europe. and who are not permitted to buy in the cheap market which fixes the prices of their products. but must buy at home at an advance of 46 per cent. over the foreign marketthese agricultural people. upon whose necks the yoke of protective tariff bondage has rested heavily for seventyfive years. will hail with glad acclaim the day when. in a tariff laid only for the purpose of raising money to support their Government. and not for tribute to a manufacturing class. they are emancipated from their most oppressive burdens. The farmers of this country live harder. wear plainer clothing. practice more rigid economy. have fewer of the luxuries of life. work harder and more constantly. and are more troubled to make both ends meet at the end of the year. and realize less on their labor and capital. than any other class of our people. and are the class upon which the protective tariff falls. with the most crushing weight. The policy of exclusion maintained by our high protective tariff toward foreign nations is a declaration and maintenance of commercial war against them. and is so regarded by them. and yet these same foreign nations are the sole dependence of thoAmerican farmers for a market for their surplus products. and absolutely fix and establish the prices of American wheat and cotton both at home and abroad.