The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-10-31
THE FARMERS PLOW.
How the Free Traders Have
Tried to Turn a Free
Trade FurrOw.
American Flows as Sold in
This Country and
Canada,

| Certain free trade stump speakers have
repeatedly made the statement that Amer
lean made plows are sold cheaper in Can
ada than in this country. The Detroit
Free Press has repeatedly reiterated the
statement, claiming among other things,
that the Oliver chilled pillow Is sold in
Canada for Sl1 and in this country for
Sl4. These statements have been often
refuted, but are still repeated. The last
time the Free Press repeated the state
ment the Detroit Evening Journal, an in
dependent paper, made the following
| conclusive rejoinder:
Our esteemed contemporary, the Free
| Press, Is advertising a chestnut which has
been ''shucked' and roasted already by
the parties who understood that part of
the business. II declares, on the strength
| OF testimony from a consular agent of the
United States in Canada, that the Oliver
chilled pillow is to be had in Canada for
SO, while the same pillow costs the farm
ers of the United States Sl4.
1t is scarcely week ago that the Oliver
| chilled pillow works, in reply To the same
charge by Congressman Hatch Of Missouri,
declared that they did not sell plows in
Canada at any price, and that their books
showed no transactions of the kind; that
IL they did Canada dealers could not get
them for any less rate than they sold the
| plows in this country, which, with the
Canadian duty added, would make II i'm
possible for the Canadian dealer to sell the
pillow for $40 or Sl2.
| Moreover the chilled pillow Is not sold
| for Sl4 or SIG in the United States, but for
| $ll; with wheel and jointer added for S14
Every foreign country where these plows
are sold, they are sold for higher price
than American farmers pay for them.
But they are not sold in Canada at all.
John w. Donovan OF Detroit adds his
evidence as follows:
| A recent letter in the Detroit Free Press
assumed to tell Michigan farmers how the
writer (name not signed) had visited
| cheaper there and decided to be free
trader. That the writer was a humbug
the letter herewith clearly shows:
| j. w. Donovan, ESQ.,, No. Bull Block,
| Detroit. Mich: Dear Strive have your
| favor of the 9Th inst, and carefully note
same. The statement that our plows are
sold cheaper in Canada than N the United
States is false. We may say In fact that few.
| or none OF our plows are sold In Canada at
| any price, as the Canadian tariff shuts us
out There. may be limitations of our plow
| sold there but we are not responsible for
them. The United States is the home of the
| plow, and its manufacture has been brought
| nearer TO perfection In this country than in
any country on the face of the globe. There
| are great many plow factories In this
country, competition is very brisk, and. as a
| result, plows are sold cheaper here than in
| any foreign land. We export our plows to
Europe, Mexico, South America, Australia
| and elsewhere, and the people of those coun-
tries are glad 10 buy them even at consid-
| erably higher price than they are retailed at
In this country We do not favor foreign
trade in the least and buyers for that trade
pay exactly the same prices that American
| dealers do. We manufacture and sell up
| ward Of one hundred thousand plows per
year and employ eight hundred TO one thou
sand men. The merit OF our goods accounts
| for their popularity, and all reports that we
sell cheaper TO foreign buyers than TO our
| own dealers are without a shadow Of truth.
| Our plows are protected by patents so far as
the particular, patterns and devices We use
are concerned, but in no manner that would
affect their selling prices at home or abroad.
Yours truly, SOUTH BEND IRON WORKS.
From wagon works, stove works, reaper
| works, car works and glass orks, have
similar letters. They are too long to print
but this one is fair sample. 1t tells its
own story. Competitions, wherever brought
to bear on American material with Amer
lean genius will reduce home production
to close living margin, and our own peo-
pie get the greatest benefit from its being
|
z. E. Smalley of Detroit, formerly q
machine agent, writes as follows on the
same subject:
Judging from an editorial In the Detroit
Free Press entitled "The Farmers Pillow, "
/ conclude the editor knows more about
farming than writing editorials, and very
little OF either.
He tries very hard to make Il appear
L that the farnare in thu ITnftaH M NM
more for plows and binders than do the
farmers OF Canada. He quotes the price
paid by the Canada farmer to be $40 for
binder made by Walter A. Wood. Now IL
the editor Of the Free Press wants to go to
farming / will make him the following
offer: / will furnish him w. A. Wood
binder for sl10 or one for the same price
of any other good make.
Having been an agent for the Champion
Machine co. (who make and sell twice as
many binders as w. A. Wood, / think !
know what l am talking about, and say l
can prove that farmers in northern Illinois
In 1886 bought binders of all makes for
from ninety TO one hundred and ten dol
lars. A Champion agent at Oak Grove,
Cook county, sold 81 binders that year
for one hundred and Ave to one hundred
and ten dollars each. At Durand, H.,
that year the Esterly binder was sold for
$50 and all other makes equally low.
Now. can prove what say, and would
be willing to undertake to find at leas,
fifty farmers in Wayne county, Mich,
who bought binders the past season for
$110 or less.
F. A. Fisk Of Detroit, in q conversation
with q Tribune reporter recently, gave the
following additional information ON the
same subject:
The Free Press OF Wednesday morning
contains some misleading statements in
regard to the comparative cost of Ameri
can made plows in the United States and
Canada. 1t exhibits figures calculated u
show that an American farmer can 90 Il
Canada and buy an American pillow 8
cheaper than he can at home right where
they are manufactured.
And 1t further tries to show that thi
condition, II 1t exists, is attributable Il
the protective tariff. Now, such talk q
this will not deceive practical business
men or farmers, much less men like my
self, who have been in the business O,
handling plows. II may or may not be ,
! fact that plows of a certain make can bs
, bought cheaper In Canada than In Mich
igan, Illinois or Ohio, but what does tina
: proven You can buy South Bend pillow
} down In Alabama cheaper than you can In
Illinois. The reason is that plows, like
everything else, are made TO suit the mar.
ket for which they are intended. When
travelled through the South q few year.
ago there was no market for steel plows
, cast iron being in general use. We mar
keted pillow there identical in form and
T general appearance with one marketed In
J Michigan pillow, In fact, that bore the
: same makers stamp-but IL cost onl,
, about half as much as the one We wer'
furnishing to our Northern trade. Now
in Canada our pillow manufacturers ar
selling implements made with especia
reference to the needs OF that market; and