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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 20, 1912)
&i-1 V lfrrTfr,tJ'i"1 -AjJ iftfcV.. -.A iwt fcn.ai.lw.w ,.-. The Commoner o JMU- w,y mm M 'Wj JHJ i Br ft ".V h ff" '" !.'- I '.? 3 .' ' I' K ' R- 4 & & Hi ft. 1"U FT7 I V' r WHEAT HIGHER IN CANADA THAN IN THE UNITED STATES Wages Higher in Canada Than in the United States Claim That the Protective Tariff Benefits Our Farmers and Mechanics Entirely Disproven Holla, N. D., Sept. 2. To the Editor of the World-Herald: With tho very large wheat yield thl3 year in North Dakota, South Dakota, Min nesota and Canada, there never has been a more favorable tirao to compare the prices paid for wheat in tho United States and Canada than now. Grand Forks, N. D., is one of the two principal citleB in North Dakota. It is about 135 miles south of Winnipog, Can. I quote the wheat market from the Daily Grand Forks Times of August 21, 1912, and in close the market page of this paper for your inspection. The markets are substantially the game now as on August 20, 1912. Wheat market August 20, 1912: Cash wheat, Minneapolis, Minn., 95c. Cash wheat, Duluth, Minn., 96c. Cash wheat, Grand Forks, N. D., 86c. Cash wheat, Winnipeg, Can., $1.06. To import wheat from Canada into the United States, it is necossary to pay a tariff tax of 25 cents per bushel, and our farmers have been asked to believe that this tariff has protected them against Canadian wheat. With good, crops in both countries, wheat never can be shipped from Canada Into the United States, omitting the tariff entirely, without loss to tho shipper. On the present market, if wheat could come in to tho United States from Canada without any tariff tax, tho man who would try to ship wheat from Winnipeg (the greatest wheat market in Canada) to Grand Forks, N. D., would lose about 26 cents per bushel. Allowing wheat to come in from Canada free, no one can ship wheat from Winnipeg to Min neapolis or Duluth, including shipping charges, without a loss of about 20 cents per bushel. The eastern manufacturer wants the farmer to believe that he gets more for his grain on account of the tariff, so that the farmer will be willing to pay about two prices for the manu factured articles he buys. The truth is, the farmer is paying more for what ho buys, with out getting any more for what he sells, than as though there had been no tariff on wheat and corn. In Canada $16 will buy as good a suit of cloth ing, as good an overcoat, as good a dress or as good a woman's coat as $30 will buy in the United States. Counting wheat at $1 per bushel in both countries, and clothing of the same quality, in trading wheat for clothing you have this result: One suit clothing 16 bu. wheat Ono overcoat 16 bu. wheat One woman's coat 16 bu. wheat One woman's dress 16 bu. wheat Total .'. 64 bu. wheat In the United States .One suit clothing ....30 bu. wheat Ono overcoat 30 bu. wheat One woman's dress 30 bu. wheat Ono woman's coat 30 bu. wheat Total 120 bu. wheat Who gets tho extra fifty-six bushels of wheat that tho farmer in the United States pays for his four garments? It is tho local merchant? No. It is the factory laborer? No. He gets an average of less than $1.40 per day. It is tho manufacturer of the cloth and the manufacturer of the clothing who got tho extra fifty-six bushels of wheat on account of tho tariff. The farmer gets no more for his horses, cattle, hogs, wheat or corn than ho would if there were no tariff on those products of the farm. Today a good span of horses is worth $100 more in Canada than in the United States. Wages are higher in Winnipeg than in Min neapolis, but for comparison we will call thom the same common labor $3 per day in either city. In Canada the laborer will buy a much better suit of clothing for $12 than he can get in tho United States for $18. In tho two countries, in trading labor for clothing, we have this result: In Canada Ono suit of clothing, 4 days' work $12 Ono overcoat, 4 days work $12 In tho United States One suit of clothing, 6 days' work $18 Ono overcoat, 6 days' work $18 Wages are much higher in Canada than in tho United States and there is a large demand for labor. Section men, who work on the railroads in Canada, are paid $2.40 per day. A resident of Saskatoon, Can., a place of 15, 000 to 20,000 people, told your correspondent that the following wages are paid there: Carpenters 55 cents per hour Brick masons 65 cents per hour Plasterers 70 cents per hour From all this ono must conclude that the so called protective tariff does not give higher prices to the farmer or the laborer in the United States, but that it makes both pay more for liv ing supplies. This tariff puts the robber in the home, where he takes about 35 per cent more than a fair price out of every dollar spent for domestic sup plies. It is not a protective, but rather a destruc tive tariff. George T. Baker in Omaha World-Herald. WILSON ON PARMER PROTECTION The theory, doctrine and claim that protection advantages the farmer, upon which the republi can party has so persistently and insistently rung tho changes, never mot with more complete an nihilation than they suffored at the hands of Governor Wilson in a speech he made in Pennsylvania the other day. The American farmer, Governor Wilson asserted, has never needed protection for the reason, which con stitutes "an economical fact," that he has never needed protection, since his grains have been sold at prices established by the prices which his produce commanded in foreign markets. The prices the farmer receives, he continued, in further impressing his position as to the con trolling relation of "an economic fact" to the question, are not established by protection. They are established by your (the farmers') abun dance, which you ship to foreign countries.- From recognition of tho absolute cogency of this reasoning and the unassailability of the con clusion there is no escape. But Governor Wilson did not stop there. Turning to tho disadvantages to tho farmer in volved in "protection" high tariff he affirmed that meantime everything used on the farm, everything the farmer needs, a great deal of what he eats but does not himself produce, in cluding meats, bears a heavy duty, "which brings about the interesting result that you (the farmers) are paying for the wealth of the United States and getting nothing equivalent, so far as the tariff is concerned." A bomb, verily, of con centrated fact and logic Governor Wilson hurled into the protection camp in the above exposition. He not only proved that the farmer is not pro tected, but demonstrated, to the contrary, that he was mercilessly preyed upon for the benefit of tho favored few; that the agricultural in terests, considering their Immensity, have been and are being made the chief source for glutting protection vampiroism. His proof on the ono point and his demon stration as to the other refute in a nutshell every contention that has been advanced in ex ploitation of protection as the "farmers' friend " They are so clear and convincing that it is im possible to comprehend how any farmer gifted with even the most elementary ability to grasp them can fail of understanding that the tariff is his worst enemy. It is difficult to conceive how he can fail to recognize that just in propor tion as he accepts the high tariff doctrine ho becomes the dupe and the tool of the special interests and engages in cutting his own purse and throat and the purses and throats of the masses is guilty of economic suicide. Rich mond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. TARIFF MAKES LIVING HIGH The real facts about the present tariff are being published by the New York World in a series of articles based upon information - VOLUME 12, NUMBER 37 gathered by the tariff reform committee of tho Reform club of New York, a non-partisan or ganization. There are about 22 million households in tho United States. That not 'ono of them escapes tho greed of tho , tariff-protected manufacturer will bo very plainly seen by comparing export and domestic prices on articles of common uso in tho home. Nearly everybody is familiar witli tho dis crimination that has been practiced by tho "Watch Trust", against tho American consumer resulting in some merchants buying Elgin, Wal tham and other American watches cheaper in Europo than tho trust sold them here and shipping them back to this country. But clocks are too bulky to make this practice profitable and tho American is helpless. ' THE KITCHEN FEELS IT Tho American family meets tariff discrimina tion at every turn. To get breakfast they uso a kitchen coffeo mill, which is offered for ex port at ninety cents, but to the American purchaser not under $1.13 one-fourth added to the price while the tariff permits tho Ameri can manufacturer to do business without com petition from abroad. Tho oil heater on which the workingman's family might make a hasty cup of coffee and boil the eggs for breakfast if they could afford eggs is sold for export at $2.20, but for tho "protected" American purchaser the price is 40 per cent higher, or $3.08. A 2-quart aluminum coffeo pot, on which thero is protection of 45 per cent, is sold in this coun try for $1.50, which is 44 per cent more than tho American manufacturer asks for it for ex port to any place not under protection's wing. On Monday morning the American mother puts tho wash boiler on the tariff-taxed cook stove. A Peekskill, N. Y., manufacturer quoted the tariff reform committee's "export agent" $15 as tho foreign price for tho stove he charges $20 for in this country because the government has decreed a tax of 45 per cent on cook stoves. TAX! THE BABY CARRIAGE If the American mother wishes to let her baby sleep in tho baby carriage in the yard she meets the tariff tax again. For Newfoundland a leading American manufacturer quoted $9.50 for his baby carriage, but for all those who enjoy tho blessings of "protection" the wholesale price is $12.67, or one-third more. By a duty of 45 per cent the American baby is often "pro tected" out of having any carriage at all. For the poor the protective tariff has made a go-cart a luxury. Tuesday is ironing day, which the kind hearted protectionists have tried to make hap pier for the house mother by compelling her to pay nearly a third more for her flatirons, as is proved by the export prices quoted by Phila delphia manufacturers. The heavier the iron the greater the weight of protection, as it is fixed at four-fifths of a cent per pound. The set of sadirons these honest Quaker City people offer for export at ninety-three cents they will sell to the "protected" Americans for $1.23. MORE OF THE KITCHEN GRAFT The meat chopper costs just double tho ex port price, the slaw and vegetable cutter and the potato shredder cost two-fifths more than they would. sell for across the line in Canada, and the pots and pans of aluminum come 50 per cent dearer. It is chiefly due to that 45 per cent duty. , Even tho vanilla flavoring extract for the cornstarch pudding costs the American family a third more than for oxport to the foreign family. The children's clothes have to be made, and the domestic sewing machine is handy. It would be just as handy, however, if tho Ameri can family could get it for the export price, $18.62, instead of the $30 or more they have to pay. The $11.38 extra charged his wife for this machine is a week's wages for many mil lions of American workingmen. Kansas City Times. Mr. Perkins is becoming more and more a load to Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft is beginning to feel the weight of J. Pierpont Morgan's in dorsement. The trust magnates are a liability instead of an asest in a campaign. Mr. Roosevelt continues to call Woodrow Wil son "Doctor." Let it go at that. Dr. Wilson seems to be purging the body politics of a lot or deleterious matter hence the scolding and the fulminating. r ai&fc'4il ..