St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-02

other farm products, and the general
distress aud discomfort among farmers
at the result of their labor. 1t would
seem that after few years of unprofit-
able wheat growing the Minnesota or
Dakota farmer would turn his energies
to fax. Flax fiber brings, according to
the tariff commissions report, from
$500 to $500 ton, and the highest grades
as much as $3.50 a ton. Statistics show
that under the much lower prices paid
in Europe, without protective tariff,
the fax crop in France and Belgium
yields the farmer an average an nual re-
turn of from $65 to $40 an acre. The
Western farmer sells his flax straw at
from So to Sc ton, and more often
burns it in the fields. All this appears
to be very anomalous.
There are great many explanations,
only one of which we shall suggest.
The same protective tariff has some
thing to do with it. BY shutting out
foreign flax it depriyes manufacturers
of ready supply of raw material, and
deters men from embarkIng in the bus
mess of linen manufact uring. Instead
of having factories all over the country
affording close and ready market for
their products to such farmers as had
flax fiber for sale, as we should if we
had industrial freedom, there are only
few concerns engaged i'll the bus
mess, and most of those in the Eastern
states. The raising of flax for it's fiber
is very tOilsome and troublesome proc
Sunnoca tho Minnesota farmer
should, after infinite labor, have in his
barn crop of the highest grade. What
could he do with it? For potatoes and
wheat there is a regular and accessible
market, where his product can be con-
verted into cash, although it may be at
an unremunerative figure. But to sell
his fiay. in which he has invested a
weight of work and capital, he would
have to go perhaps a thousand mileSs
in person or enter into elaborate negotia
tiOns by correspondence. To neither of
these things is he equal, either by edu-
cation or inclination. The Eastern
dealer, who knows how limited the do
mestic market is and how necessary it
would be for the farmer to get rid of his
stock, would criticise its character,
plead light demand at that particular
time, and browbeat him generally until
he let his fiber go at low figure. The
farmer would. after such an experience,
go home discouraged and abandon the
business.
If we only had sense enough not to
put the cart before the horse, it would
be entirely different. Imagine fax fiber
admitted free of duty. Ii would de-
stroy no domestic industry, because, as
we have said. there is no cultivation of
flax for its fiber in this country worth
mentioning. Local enterprise and patri
otism would establish linen-making
plants all over the North. They would
be profitable investments. because they
would have the limitless field of Europe
to draw on unshackled for their stuff.
The domestic demand for fiber would
become general and strong. The farmer
would find the purchasers Of his crop
among his friends and neighbors, with
whom he could higgle for all that was
rightfully due him. The domestic pro-
duction would increase until there were
regular quotations made, as in other
farm products, and grades of fax fiber
would be fixed by state regulations, for
which there would be definite regular
market at a definite regular price. In
this case, as in every other, the protect
| i've tariff hurts at once the manufacturer
and the farmer.