Conservative *
air is burdened with nn odor of stale
milk.
Gives a Sample of Uncleanliness.
"Here is a sample of the conditions
met with on our tour of inspection. It
is a report on a largo creamery near
Freeport and reads as follows :
"The output of the plant last year
was 74,880 pounds of butter , all of
which was shipped to Chicago. The
creamery handled 1,872,000 pounds of
milk. The creamery is located in a
two-story frame structure and the owner
and his family live upstairs. The
boards in the floor are loose and dirty
water spurts between the cracks every
time a person walks across the floor.
"Escaping steam fills the room and
this , together with the smell of stale
milk , makes the atmosphere almost un
bearable. The weigh can cover was
covered with a black grease due to the
accumulations of months. Directly
over the receiving vat was a window
covered with dust and soot and cob
webs. The appearance of the entire
place was slimy and dirty.
i "We found the outside of the separat
or covered with a black grease half an
inch thick.
"The woodwork of the cream vat was
moldy and foul smelling. The churn
wa' filthy and the valve through which
the cream flowed was partially clogged
with a black grease. The escaping
steam in the place kept the ceiling wet
all the time and dirty water dripped in
to the vats.
"The skimmed milk and butter tanks
are located directly over a coal pile and
every time fuel is removed the dust
rises and settles in the tanks. In an ad
joining room wo saw thorn working and
packing butter amid filthy surround
ings. "
Solicitude for Sanitation.
And from such environments comes
the importunate petition for the Grout
K bill. Amidst the reeking filth , thus of-
. ( , flcially portrayed by Food Inspector
Patterson , arises the tender and irre
pressible anxiety for the public health
which finds philanthropic incarnation
' in the Grout bill. From these Phari
sees of the butter trade , in the old-fash-
j- ioned thank-God-I-am-not-as-other-men-
are style , comes the prayer to Congress
that publicans and sinners of the oleo
margarine brand be punished and re
generated by the torture of extreme
taxation.
Domesticated Tariffs.
But having so long endeavored
under the name of protection to exclude
exchanges between ourselves and for
eigners by the imposition of prohibitive
tariff taxes , it is not strange that avari
cious and ounuiug citizens should now
ask to be protected from competition by
their neighbors and rivals in business.
As trade which is unprofitable between
individuals or nations , always stops it
self and only exchanges , which arc mu
tually advantageous continue , a pro
tective tariff only impedes the latter.
And an excise tax for the extinction of
an industry like the tax proposed for
oleomargarine by the Grout bill is
therefore laid upon something in manu
facture and commerce for which there
is much demand and in which there are
many and constantly increasing ex
changes. That is to say , such an excise
tax could never be asked for upon a
commodity not constantly and actively
in the market of exchanges. Buttcrino ,
oleomargarine or any substitute for
cow-butter which is popularly demand
ed , must have proved itself mutually
advantageous and satisfactory to sellers
and to buyers , to producers and con
sumers.
There should be no bill passed to crip
ple and destroy the manufacture of but
ter substitutes under the false pretence
of raising revenue. Such legislation is
a menace to all competitive innovations
in all lines of production , and an invita
tion to avarice and greed to secure a
large trade by enactment , which in a
free market it shrinks from attempting.
There has been too much class legisla
tion already. The American people
have had too much faith in the mere
"be-it enacted" potency of legislation.
Goods honestly , wholesomely made and
sold at reasonably profitable figures will
build up successful industrial plants.
Personal and corporate endeavo aided
only by integrity and persistent ad
herence to fair-dealing , will always suc
ceed without legislative aid. To petition
Congress for an enactment clearly
inimical to a rival in business is a con
fession of the merit and worth of that
rival , an admission of fear of his
competition , and an acknowledgment
of inferiority and weakness by the pe
titioner.
ONE READER SAYS "HOW ? "
To The Conservative :
Your office has very properly re
ferred to me for reply , a postal inquiry
by one who signs himself "Reader. "
and whose communication is post
marked "Elgin , III. , Nov. 20th , 1901 , "
and upon the reverse of which is pasted
an extract from an article contributed
by mo on the subject of the tariff , and
which appeared in a recent number of
your journal. I here quote the extract
from that communication , and also give
copy of the inquiry verbatim. The extract -
tract is as follows :
"As a means of raising revenue for
the necessary expense of government ,
taxes may be legitimately levied and
collected , but this should be so done as
to make the burthen equal upon all , etc. ,
etc. " And then follows the request of
your "Reader" for information as fol
lows :
"How ? That is one of our most ur-
gout and most perplexing problems.
'Make the burthen equal upon all ? '
All meu ? Or all men and women ? Or
nil persons ? Or all property ? In either
cnso how ? That is what wo want to
know. Please ask Ballou , and let us
know. ( Signed ) READER. "
If I bo not able at the moment to give
full and detailed reply to this compli
cated inquiry , and one which is ad
mittedly a "most perplexing problem. "
the fact of my inability in no wise mili
tates against the position taken in the
article from which his extract is made.
Neither the wisdom nor justice of a
measure depends upon the ability or ig
norance of its advocates or opponents.
Otherwise the Golden Rule would bo
God's word in one community and the
devil's edict in another. A tariff meas
ure is either just or unjust without
reference to your "Reader's" approval
or my condemnation , and regardless of f
anybody's ability to devise a better or ,
inflict a worse.
The endeavor of my article was to
criticise and defeat a certain and well
denned measure known as a protective
tariff , designed professedly to aid in the
development of our infant industries ,
and not to propose measures for the
maintenance and support of the govern
ment. I acted upon the theory that
others than the proprietor of a South
African mine might be able to point
out a flaw in a diamond , and that a man
might condemn the architecture of a
particular structure without being called
upon to build a city after his own
plans.
The inquiry of your "Reader , " if
legitimate and sincere , should have
been directed to congress , or to the
chairman of the ways and means com
mittee of the house , whose office and
duty it is to provide the revenues of
government , and , incidentally , to for
mulate measures for that purpose.
When the writer of this shall have been
elected to congress and made chairman
of that committee , he will have pleasure
in submitting his views and proposed
measures to his fellows , and through
them to the people at large. But until
then it would be as impertinent for him
to propose plans and measures , as it is
for your "Reader" to demand and com
mand it.
At the same time it may not bo
wholly amiss to suggest to this real or
pretended seeker after knowledge , that
one way of making the burthen of tax
ation equal is to oppose measures which
tend to make them unequal. As Secre
tary Sherman once said , "the way to
resume is to resume , " and so , the way
to make taxation equal is to prevent
inequality. And when a measure like a
protective tariff , which is confessedly
and avowedly partial and discriminat
ing , is proposed , your "Reader" may
find an answer to one of his "Hows" by
opposing and defeating it.
BALLOU.
Omaha , Nob. , Nov. 25 , 1901.
