The High Cost of Being a Farmer
A scathing breakdown of how protective tariffs inflate the daily expenses of Washington homesteaders.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Oregonian every now and then tries to instill into the minds of the farmers the principles of protection, and tells them that it is to their interest that they should favor protection. So far, we never could comprehend how any intelligent farmer could favor that system of protection which compels him to pay an average of 47 percent tax on nearly everything he buys, while the price of everything he sells is made in the great free trade markets of the world. Let us see just how the present system of protection effects the farmer. He puts on a flannel shirt taxed 65 percent, pants taxed 57 percent, shoes taxed 36 percent. He washes his face in a bucket taxed 35 percent, with soap taxed 20 percent, and dries it on a towel taxed 45 percent. He eats his breakfast from a plate taxed 50 percent, sweetens his coffee with sugar taxed 82 percent, and seasons his rice with salt taxed 40 percent. He goes out on his farm mortgaged to the extent of 50 percent of its value, and sows wheat that he must sell at prices made in Liverpool, England, in competition with wheat raised on cheap land by the cheapest labor in the world. When night comes, he feeds his hogs and cattle, worth 2 cents per pound, with corn worth only 20 cents a bushel under a Republican administration. We don't think the farmers of our grand and glorious state are in favor of any such system of protection.
“He goes out on his farm mortgaged to the extent of 50 percent of its value, and sows wheat that he must sell at prices made in Liverpool, England.”
The economic anxieties of late 19th-century Yakima farmers—struggling with debt, global market volatility, and the cost of basic goods—echo modern debates about the impact of trade policy and inflation on agricultural communities in the Yakima Valley.
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