RECIPROCITY'S THORNY PATH. Insurgent Republicans Now Discern that They Have Been Fooling with a Boomerang. San Francisco Chronicle. Senator Cummins of Iowa was the original Insurgent and an early and ardent advocate of fake reciprocity. But in those days he did not realize that he was fooling with a boomerang without any acquired skill for directing its move ments. And now that in its first flight it has returned to smash the faces of his former constituents, Senator Cummins is astonished and dismayed. Iowa is easily first among the States of the Union as an exclusively agricultural State, and in its bucolic atmosphere Senator Cummins seems to have been enthralled by the delusion that the farmers were supreme in the United States, that all other interests would kowtow to them and that what they asked for they would get. Consequently it occurred to him to ask that the import duties should be removed or greatly reduced on whatever the farmers have to buy, while retained and perhaps increased on whatever the farmer has to sell. That would work out nobly so far as Iowa was concerned, and perhaps enable every Iowa farmer to sell out at an advance of a good many dollars an acre. Naturally that Iowa idea became marvelously popular in Iowa, and the sons of the soil rose up and insurged mightily. Now that the first fruit of Insurgency turns out to be just the reverse of the Iowa vision, and the farmers of Iowa have awakened and found it was only a dream, Senator Cummins is in trouble. Reciprocity with Canada is found to be not at all what it was cracked up to be. and the farmers of Iowa are wishing that they had not insurged. There must be in this country either Free-Trade or the nearest possible approach to it, or else, on the other hand, Protection that Protects all alike. It will be useless for our statesmen to offer to trade special privileges for special interests with foreign nations, for they cannot deliver the goods. Those whose interests are sacrificed will promptly turn Democrats and we shall be on a Free-Trade basis. No man whose Protection is cut off will permit any one else to get Protection if his vote will stop it. Iowa has been a banner Republican State. It can very easily be changed into. a banner Democratic State. The remedy which Senator Cummins proposes is characteristic of the devious workings of the Insurgent mind. His proposition is to equalize things by placing Canadian manufactures on the free list to an amount quite sufficient to compensate the Iowa farmers. He will do this by proposing amendments to the reciprocity bill making the reductions. As that will be so much gain to Canada, Canadians will welcome the addition to their markets. The "deviousness" comes in in this way. If the duties were removed by an ordinary law, other nations could claim the same reductions under the most-favored-nation clause of the treaties. If made as part of an international bargain the most-favorednation clause does not count. But it would be a breach of international faith just the same, for the removal of the duties on Canadian manufactures would be really no part of a trade. The terms of the trade are completed and anything more would be a free gift to Canada. It would be lying and cheating enacted into law. Why the Farmers Kick. National Stockman and Farmer, March 16. The great metropolitan journals which appeal to the public to support the reciprocity agreement base their arguments on the statement that admission of Canadian products will tend to reduce the cost of living. Out in the country we are told that it will not affect prices of our products. Secretary Wilson, who continues to misrepresent the farmers of the country in the President's cabinet, thinks farmers will even up by the roundabout way of Protecting the other fellows so they can get money to buy the farmer's products. The American farmer is getting weary of such twaddle as this, and he is going to let somebody know it before many moons. He should rise up and swat this and any other proposition which deals unfairly with him a blow that will put it to sleep forever. Once more let us add that farmers are not opposed to Tariff revision on the level. They are not opposed to reciprocity on the level, in fact they would welcome closer trade relations with Canada. But they are opposed to the decided slant in the present and other proposed Tariff deals whereby the things they raise are hit and the things they buy are not. They demand equitable Tariff revision, whether by treaty, by agreement or by readjustment. Why? National Stockman and Farmer. But why should agricultural products be made free by either country and the manufactures thereof be continued on the list of dutiable articles? If we have free grains both ways we should have free flour and cereal products. If we have free livestock we should have free meats, and SO on. This treaty apparently violates the principle of Tariff revision equitable to agriculture, which is that it should enjoy an equal measure of the advantages and disadvantages afforded by reciprocity. Exact equity is hard to reach, and no treaty will please all hands, but agriculture should not be given the worst of it and other interests the best. WHEAT, MINNEAPOLIS AND CANADA. The Man Who Knows Finds Flaws in the Statement of the Man Who Guesses. Grand Forks (N. D.) Times. A Pembina County citizen sends the following article to the Times, as he says for a suggestion for an editorial, but it is so clear and concise that it is published in full: Thursday's Herald contains a collection of figures which it says is compiled by Prof. Job's Comforter from re-lie-able sources, purporting to prove that Winnipeg, Duluth and Minneapolis prices for wheat have been at least previous to the last two years, approximately the same. An editorial dilating on the said figures in the same issue of the Herald says: "The argument against reciprocity as shown by the difference in prices on either side of the line as a piece of logic is faultless except for the important matter that it does not hang together." The Herald editorial then proceeds to call attention to the aforesaid figures and proves by them "that the Winnipeg prices remained for month after month, as high as Minneapolis prices." Now the Herald, both editorially and in the heading over the aforesaid figures, declares the figures given as the "cash price for No. 1 Northern wheat for the dates indicated." This is absolutely untrue and the Herald knows it to be untrue, as it has previously admitted, what is well but not generally known, that the figures given as "cash prices in Winnipeg" are not the prices paid for wheat in Winnipeg, but the prices for the wheat delivered at Port Arthur or Fort William. That is, a farmer who would sell wheat in Winnipeg on some day when wheat is quoted at 92 cents, would receive about 80 cents cash, the difference being the freight rate to Port Arthur and elevator charges. Now if the interested reader will take his pencil and go over the Winnipeg column of figures with the Herald and mark each of them down about 12 cents, he will get the true facts of the case and judge whether or not "the logic is faultless." The figures published a few weeks ago by the Pembina Pioneer-Express showed the exact difference in prices paid at neighboring points on either side of the line at various dates. The figures published by the Herald prove the Pioneer-Express prices to be correct, allowing for the difference between the actual and the quoted prices between Winnipeg and Port Arthur. The recent speech of Senator McCumber in the United States Senate goes very exhaustively into the same figures with full tables and explanations. The further editorial argument of the Herald, in the same article, that laws of Manitoba prevent certain sorts of trade in wheat, only proves that if the barrier of the Tariff were thrown down, that the Manitoba farmers would all the more certainly send their grain to markets where no such restrictions exist, if that is what makes the difference in prices. Readers of the Herald may put their own construction as to the manner in which that paper has misrepresented the facts, but everybody will agree that under any supposition, it was certainly a bungle, utterly inexcusable from a newspaper point of view.-Grand Forks (N. D.) Times. Protection and Cement. The fine results of the Protective policy to American industries is again clearly shown in the cement business. In 1880 the United States used 42,000 barrels of cement at a cost of $3 per barrel. In 1910 it used 74,000,000 at the cost of 75 cents per barrel. Home production is the main thing to lower prices to the consumer, and to furnish work for the laborer, thus being an advantage in two ways.-Waterloo (Ill.) Republican. THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN misled. Has Paid Too Much Attention to the Yellow Press and the Muckraking Magazines. Luvern (Minn.) Herald.. To call the Democrats in session at the earliest date possible so as to permit them to do their worst as soon as possible and be done with it, may be good policy. The Herald doubts the wisdom of the policy, because it believes the business interests of the country should be given all the time possible in which to prepare for the business disturbance sure to follow. The Times is unquestionably right in attributing the cause of the trouble to "the yellow dailies and the yellower magazines." The sentiment against the PayneAldrich Tariff law was wholly due to the agitation conducted by the metropolitan press. In it their efforts naturally were seconded by the Democrats and the near-Democrats who styled themselves "Insurgents," all of whom were fighting the administration and seeking in every way possible to put the Republican party in a hole. The people in general were not, and today are not, opposed to the Payne-Aldrich law as a whole. There are undoubtedly a few schedules of the Tariff law that a majority of the people are opposed to, but aside from these the opposition is merely sectional-certain sections of the country approving certain schedules for the same reason that the big cities favor Free-Trade in farm products and the farming sections are in favor of a substantial Tariff duty on all products of the farm. This being the situation, it is a nondisputable fact that the agitation against the Payne-Aldrich law was confined to the metropolitan press, the muckraking magazines, the Democrats and the near-Democrats or "Insurgents"-all avowed opponents of Taft, his administration and the Republican party. Thus we are confronted with the fact that President Taft has been egregiously misled. Instead of bringing out and advocating the Canadian reciprocity treaty in response to the demands of the country, he has done so in response to the demands of the enemies of his administration and his party. No other deduction is possible. He has mistaken the vaporing of the yellow press, the muckracking magazines, the Democrats and the near-Democrats for the voice of the people. Again we find that in his efforts to bring about a reduction in the cost of living he is seeking to reduce the Tariff duties only on the things principally produced in the country and purchased by the people in the cities in the homes of the yellow dailies and the muckraking magazines. The Herald does not believe that in the reciprocity treaty the President is trying to placate the dailies and magazines. He is too fearless, too independent and too honest in his convictions to adopt such a course. But one other plausible reason remains, and this is the one given abovehe has mistaken the vaporing of his enemies for the voice of the people. How to Help Some Other Country. Senator Brown, of Nebraska, has invented a unique way to review, reform and rearrange Tariff schedules. In a speech before the Commercial Club of Lincoln, Neb., he advocated a revision of the Tariff one schedule at a time, and with one country at a time. Quite a unique idea. Based on wages of the different countries or by the "cost of production" it would keep the Senator busy. Why, for a change, wouldn't it be a good idea for the several Senators of this country to get their mind on this country. If we gauge the sentiment of this country aright it is this country needs Protection. No one yet has sent a Senator to the Congress of the United States to see what he can do to help some foreign country. Back in 1897 the mind of the whole country was wrought to bring about a Tariff that would help this country. In the previous administration the country's mind was on how to help some other country and a Wilson-Gorman Tariff was brought out. There was no pretense before the administration closed its affairs, but what was produced did help the other countries. Then the American mind returned home and the Dingley Tariff was produced. No one ever questioned its efficacy. It did the work expected of it. It could not have been better had Blaine himself wrought it. Now the pendulum is swinging back and the American mind is turning to the foreign nations. Senator Brown better bring his mind back and see what he can do for the United States and the farmers and mills of the United States.-Vinton (Iowa) Eagle. Canada Can Import Butter for Its Needs and Send All Its Own Make to This Country. Chicago Dairy Produce. In a more recent letter than those published in last week's Chicago Dairy Produce regarding the effects of reciprocity from a Canadian standpoint, A. A. Ayer & Co., of Montreal, writing to W. McGaulley, West Chazy, N. Y., says: "We enclose you export trade reports from Montreal from 1906 to 1909 inclusive. "We are making more butter each year in Canada, but our population has so increased that the local trade has taken what otherwise would be shipped. The cream we shipped to the United States during the past year would make say 150,000 packages of butter, and we have had an extra trade with British Columbia and the West, amounting to fully 100,000 boxes over the usual demand from the West. Under ordinary conditions, these 250,000 boxes would have been shipped to England. "As far as the Canadian farmer is concerned, the greatest objection is that we can bring butter into Canada from the lowest markets of the world in sufficient quantity to supply all our needs and enable us to ship out any quantity, up to a million packages or more, which the United States may require. "Prices paid to the farmer for creamery in Canada during 1910 varied from 22 cents to 242 cents per pound. These were considered satisfactory prices, but would average from 2 to 3 cents per pound above what we could buy at and bring into Canada from other markets of the world." Though the Canadian butter market last year was only 22 to 242 cents for finest goods, those prices were 2 to 3 cents per pound above what Canada could buy from New Zealand and Australian markets. Our big consuming population would make them a sure market for all their own butter and leave an excellent profit above what it would cost them to supply their own needs with butter from other countries not having the same reciprocity arrangement with the United States. And with the entire output from Canadian creameries pouring into this country, no one need to be in doubt about the effect it would have on prices of the output of our creameries. Necessary for the Farmer. The sheep breeders of this country are protesting against the proposition to place wool on the free list. They say that the slight difference in the price of wool cuts no figure in the selling price of clothing. With wool at its present price the wool grower gets about $1.68 for the wool in a suit of fine all-wool clothes, and that the present profit on this wool is not more than 40 cents. A slight reduction in price paid to the wool grower would drive him out of business, and while for a time the large importations would make wool a little cheaper, the price of mutton would advance as soon as the American flocks are reduced in size, so that the net result would be ruin to the American sheep breeder and no advantage to the consumer. If Protection is good for the manufacturers, it is absolutely necessary for the farmer.-Dover (Del.) State Sentinel. CASSELLA COLOR COMPANY American Branch of Leopold Cassella & Co. G. m. b. H. ARTIFICIAL DYE STUFFS NEW YORK, 182-184 Front St ATLANTA, 47 North Pryor St SE, American Economist DEVOTED TO THE PROTECTION OF AMERICAN LABOR AND INDUSTRIES. VOLUME XLVII.-No. 16. NEW YORK, APRIL 21, 1911. MEMBERSHIP IN THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE TARIFF LEAGUE IS EXPLAINED BY THE FOLLOWING PLEDGE: The undersigned hereby declares his devotion to American industrial independence and pledges himself to pay to The American Protective Tariff League annually the sum of One Hundred Dollars (or so much thereof as may be called for in any year by the Executive Committee), with the privilege of terminating this obligation by giving written notice to the General Secretary of the League on or before December 31 for each year thereafter. THE LINEN THREAD COMPANY, FLAXTHREADSANDYARNS 96-98 FRANKLIN ST., NEW YORK $2.00 A YEAR. AMERICAN DYEWOOD COMPANY. Logwood. Logwood Crystals. KILBURN, LINCOLN CO. Makers of Looms for Plain and Fancy Weaving. Over 30,000 of new High-Speed Looms are in suc cessful operation in the City of Fall River alone, and weaving all grades of goods. We claim that the mills producing the greatest quantity of goods per day, as well as those producing the finest quality of goods, are using our looms. "BUTTER COLOR," BALL BLUE, Boston AMERICAN LITHOPONE BRANCHES: Chicago Philadelphia THE KURSHEEDT MANUFACTURING COMPANY GENERAL OFFICE: 356-360 West Broadway FACTORIES: 356 to 360 West Broadway. 34 to 38 Thompson St. 139 to 153 West 19th St. Encourage Home Industry, Especially when you find it to your business interests to do so. We make all grades of fine Tissue Paper, such as Grass Bleached Silver Tissue. Copying Papers in endless variety. Cigarette Paper of every kind, etc., etc. All "as good as the best imported." For Samples, address: DIAMOND MILLS PAPER CO. 44 MURRAY ST., NEW YORK. "The Vital Issue Before the Olmsted & Tuttle Company American People." A reproduction of the great speech of Hon. Joseph W. Fordney, M. C., of Michigan, a member of the Ways and Means Committee of Congress. One copy will be forwarded free to any person sending a postal card request asking for document No. 93. Address W. F. Wakeman, Secretary, 339 Broadway. New York. CHICOPEE, MASS. Contractors with Cotton Mills for all their Manufacturers of Wiping products of Waste. and Packing Waste; "Fleece Filled" Layer Mattresses, Pillows and Cushions; Carpet Linings, Comfortables, Wadding, Caulking, Cotton, House Mops. TARIFF LITERATURE complete list of Defender Documents sent to any address for one dollar. Address Amer can Protective Tariff League 339 Broadway, New York Packards MOTOR CARS CHENEY BROTHERS, SOUTH MANCHES TER, CONN., SILK MANUFACTURERS. Spun Silk Yarns in the Gray, Dyed or Printed on Spools, Warped or in the Hank Organizines and Trams. Fast Colors, warranted. Special yarns made to order for all sorts of Silk or Silk Mixture Goods. L. F. Dommerich & Co. DRY GOODS BANKERS LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND Shoe :: Machine LINEN COLLARS CUFFS ARE STAMPED * WARRANTED LINEN" ARE YOURS? ESTABLISHED 1835. Smith & Manufacturers of Threads FLAX AND TOW YARNS, Billings Improved Sportsman's Knife THE BILLINGS & SPENCER CO. HARTFORD CONN HAVE YOU EVER BEEN OBLIGED TO USE TYPEWRITER ATTACHMENTS? Then you will appreciate the writing machine that doesn't require them. THE NEW MODEL L. C. SMITH & BROS. TYPEWRITER (All the writing always in sight) is such a typewriter as you use for your ordinary correspondence-only better-and also, without any alteration or special adjustment, A complete Tabulator and Condensed Biller. Fully Equipped for Loose Leaf Bookkeeping. Does all kinds of Manifolding (light or heavy, without affecting alignment). The L. C. Smith & Bros. Typewriter will simply do all your work, regular or special, with fewer operations, and do it easier, for it is ball-bearing throughout. Write today for the live descriptive book (Cut / Size) A novelty that every sportsman should possess; a good Sensible Hunting Knife. It is drop forged of the best Steel. Handle folds around blade. Strong and reliable. Also a splendid knife for the home or farm. THE BILLINGS & SPENCER CO., Hartford, Conn., U. S. A. DEVOTED TO THE PROTECTION OF AMERICAN LABOR AND INDUSTRIES VOLUME XLVII.-No. 16. NEW YORK, APRIL 21, 1911. $2.00 A YEAR. The Farmers' Free List Bill. Harmonizing Completely with President Taft's Abandonment of Protection in the Canadian Agreement Scheme, the House Democrats Now Come Forward with the Most Sweeping FreeTrade Measure, as Related to Agricultural Products, Ever Known in the History of American Tariff Legislation. (Correspondence AMERICAN ECONOMIST.) WASHINGTON, April 20.-If President Taft is able to retain his complacent and cheerful smile in the midst of existing conditions in Congress, and in the political arena of the United States generally, he is giving a splendid imitation of that famous Emperor of Rome who is said to have performed on a violin while a conflagration was in progress. Never in the history of the Republican party has there been such an exhibition of want of leadership by the head of a party as has been displayed by President Taft in dealing with the Tariff question and the principles for which his party stands in its platform. Indeed, so lamentable is the situation that few Republicans at this time are found willing to hazard any prediction other than that President Taft must be the nominee of his party in 1912, because no other Republican will accept the nomination, and that Mr. Taft will be the worst defeated candidate since William J. Bryan ran for the office in 1896! This is an interesting situation and illustration of the demoralized condition of the Republican party as a result of the abandonment of Protection principles by President Taft in his Administration, and the prompt advantage taken of the fact by the Democratic majority in Congress. The prediction is freely made here at this time, by Republican and Democratic leaders alike, that unless some unusual blunder is made by the Democrats in the present Congress, not only will the Republican party be defeated in the next election, whoever shall be the nominee of the party, but the country will pass through a period of industrial depression the like of which has not been witnessed in this First Results of Protection Smashing. What influence the addition of so many hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of competing foreign products to the markets of this country has had upon domestic industry and labor perhaps some advocate of lower duties will be able to point out. Republican Platform Declarations Ignored. In the face of the results achieved under the lower duties of the Payne Tariff, President Taft hastened to spring upon the country without consulting a member of his party in Congress his Canadian trade agreement bill, which invites competition on an equal basis in all farm products and many manufactured products from the Canadian side of the border. The fact has been pointed out that one of the striking features of this trade agreement bill, fully and fairly illustrates the viciousness of the measure. Ignoring the principle of the Republican platform that Tariff duties should be maintained to equalize the difference in cost of production in this country and in foreign countries, the Canadian agreement bill places print paper on the free list, although every report submitted to Congress by investigators shows that there is an actual difference of at least $4 a ton in favor of the lower cost of producing print paper in Canada. To a greater or less extent this difference applies to practically every commodity that would be imported free of duty, or at lower duties, under the Canadian trade agreement bill. Democrats Hasten to Take Advantage. Is it a matter of surprise that the Democratic party rushes with wild elation to adopt, by an almost unanimous vote, President Taft's Canadian agreement bill and hasten it through the House? Why should it be a matter of surprise also that, accepting President Taft's surrender on Protection and the indifference shown by Republicans in both branches of Congress, the Democrats have promptly followed the advantage they have gained in the smashing of Protection by the Canadian agreement bill, to bring forward what they are pleased to designate as "the Farmers' Free List bill?" This latter measure is the most unique and amazing proposition that has ever been presented by any party in any Congress since the formation of the government. The sole redeeming feature of this "Farmers' Free List bill" is that it is declared to be "a shrewd political measure," because it is expected to flourish upon the ignorance and prejudice of people in the country who do not stop to reflect upon what it means. |