Foreign producers of hay found a market in the United States for 233,784 tons more in seventeen months under the Wilson law than in the same number of months under the McKinley law.

A loss to the American farmer of $2,337,840.

HOME MARKET—A IIome or a Foreign Partner. No. 192.

Let us give the great truth of Bastiat's an application. Nature produces all. That is the origin of the much abused phrase, "The farmer pays all." Whenever the farmer goes beyond his farm for the gratification of his desires, Bastiat, the free-trader, shows that he must then share his riches. Now, whom shall w share with, the mechanic at home or the mechanic abroad; his fellow citizens or an alien? Which is for his interest?

Let us put it in another phrase. Which is it better for a farmer to do, send his surplus wheat a thousand miles to the seacoast, three

HOME MARKET-Continued.

thousand miles across the water, pay the freight, sell it to the me chanic who gets less wages, or sell it right here at home to the mechanic who gets more wages? The answer seems to be obvious.

[Bill passed by the House, May 20, 1896, 1st Session, 54th Congress. Record, page 5989.] Be it enacted, etc., That section 1 of the act of Marcu 3, 1891, in amendment of the immigration and contract-labor acts be, and hereby is, amended by adding to the classes of aliens thereby excluded from admission to the United States the following: All male persons between 16 and 60 years of age who can not both read and write the English language or some other language. But no parent of a person now living in, or hereafter admitted to, this country shall be excluded because of his inability to read and write.

Sec. 2. That the provisions of the act of March 3, 1893, to facilitate the enforcement of the immigration and contract-labor laws, shall apply to the persons mentioned in section 1 of this act.

Sec. 3. That it shall be unlawful for any alien who resides or retains his home in a foreign country to enter the United States for the purpose of engaging in any mechanical trade or manual labor within the borders thereof while residing or retaining his home in a foreign country: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury may permit aliens to come into and enter this country for the purpose of teaching new arts or industries, under such rules and regulations as he may provide.

Sec. 4. That it shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, company, or corporation knowingly to employ in any mechanical trade or manual labor in the United States any alien who resides or retains his home in a foreign country: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the employment of sailors, deckhands, or other employees of vessels of the United States, or railroad train

hands, such as conductors, engineers, brakemen, firemen, or baggagemen, whose duties require them to pass over the frontier to reach the termini of their roads.

Sec. 5. That it shall be unlawful for any alien to enter the United States, except subjects of the Dominion of Canada and other American countries, except at the places where the United States maintain an immigrant inspection board.

Sec. 6. That any violation of the provisions of this act shall be deemed a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $500 or by imprisonment for the term of not exceeding one year, or both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. That all persons convicted under section 3 of this act shall be deported to the country from whence they came.

Sec. 7. That this act shall take effect three months after its passage.

The effect of the bill on immigration will be as follows:

This is quite an interesting table, and exhibits a range of illiteracy among the nationalities who send some of their people here which is very striking. It was generally supposed that the Poles, Russians, Austrians, and Italians were the most illiterate, but this table shows that while the nationalities named are well to the front in the matter of illiteracy, they are all easily whipped by the Portuguese immigrants, 67 per cent. of whom can neither read nor write. Greece. with 25 per cent. of illiteracy, makes a much worse showing than Turkey with 14.79 per cent. Belgium's illiteracy is four times as great as that of its southern neighbor, France, while Finland does not have one-tenth part of the illiteracy that its eastern neighbor and suzerain, Russia, has. But the bill will not have grea. terrors for the Scandinavians or the Switzers; for the table shows that they are the least illiterate of all nationalities. Between Denmark, which sends us 5 illiterate persons in 1,000, and Portugal, which sends us

IMMIGRATION-Continued.

673 illiterates in 1,000, there is a graduated scale of ignorance whose dimensions, as far as we are concerned, the bill will do much to cur

tail.

IMMIGRATION FOLLOWS HIGH WAGES-High Wages
Follow High Tariff.
No. 195.

In 1856 the rate of duty on the aggregate of our imports was 20.3, and the number of immigrants was 200,436; in 1859 the rate O duties had been reduced to 14.6, and the number of immigrants fell to 121,282. In 1861, by the acts of March 2, August 5, and December 24, the rate of duties was further reduced 11.2. This broke the camel's back. So many men were thrown out of employment and wages sunk so low that none but agriculturists could come to us with any prospect of improving their condition, and immigration san to a point lower than it had been since the ever-to-be-remembered free-trade crisis of 1837-40. In that year but 91,920 immi grants arrived, and the depression continued through the next year, and the number of immigrants was but 91,987. By the act of July 14, 1862, the duties were raised, so that in 1863 they were up to 23.7, and the immigration nearly equaled that of the two preceding years, having gone up to 176,282. By the several acts of 1864, 1865, and 1866 the duties were increased, so that the duties on importations of 1866 averaged 40.2 per cent. and immigration went up to 318,554.

IMPORT DUTIES—Ad Valorem and Specific Defined. No. 196.

Ad valorem duty is a specified per cent. levied upon the value of the goods imported. For example, the duty on a certain class of silk is 50 per cent. of their foreign value.

Specific duty is a specified sum of money to be paid on each pound, yard, or ton. For example, wheat pays 25 cents per bushel regardless of its market value.

Sometimes both duties are combined, as in the case of Wilton carpets, where a specific duty of 60 cents per square yard, and an ad valorem duty of 40 per cent. on their value is charged.

IMPORT_DUTIES-Amount of, Collected Per Capita of Population in U. §. from 1791 to 1895.

No. 197.

If each person in the United States during the several years from 1791 to the close of the year 1895 had paid their proportionate share of the import duty it would have ranged. as shown in the following table, from 52 cents, the lowest in 1814, to $5.23, the highest in

IMPORT DUTIES-Continued.

1872. The average duty per capita for 103 years was $2.35, while the average duty of the McKinley law was $3.

Under the Wilson law the following paragraph appears in the free list.

"591. Plows, tooth and disk harrows, harvesters, reapers, agricul tural drills, and planters, mowers, horserakes, cultivators, threshing machines, and cotton gins: Provided, That all articles mentioned in this paragraph, if imported from a country which lays an import duty on like articles imported from the United States, shall be subject to the duties existing prior to the passage of this act."

This opens a discrimination between the above-named class of farming implements and that of "other machinery."

McKinley rate is 45 per cent.; Wilson rate is 35 per cent. For example, if the above-named articles come from Canada (as Canada lays an import duty), the duty will be 45 per cent.. while on the other hand machinery of any other description would come in at