The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1891-12-16

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"why, this Mckinley bill has raised
the dickens" they said. eve can'tim-
port ground chicory any more from
France and Germany. We must make
il here"
$50 they wrote and telegraphed the
foreign chicory manufacturers that they
must hurry up and bring their chicory
factories over here. And sure enough
there WAS stampede from Europe, and
chickory factories began to go up in Jer-
sey City, Hoboken, Williamsburg, New
ark, and Brooklyn. Then Philadelphia
and Detroit started chicory factories
till we had fourteen factories, and 9OO
chickory makers at work in America.
They get their raw chicory from France
very cheap labor. This worked well in
New York, but out in Detroit they said
ave are too far away. We must raise
our own chicory."
$50 they got chicory seeds from Ger
many, and put in small crop in Michi-
gan last spring. The farmers made
more money than they made ont of
wheat. 1t get them crazy. Everyone
wanted to raise more of it. Well, this
fall the Detroit factory is doubling its
capacity, and all the farmers are getting
seed through the factory and Jerry
Rusk, and preparing to plant chicory
next year.
What is the result? Why, after pay
ing out to France and Germany over
SIC, ZOO, 900 for chicory We are finally GO
ing to make it here, at home, and save
money-keep it in this country.
The history of the industry and how
we got it is like that of dozen other
industries which have come through
this wise tariff measure.
One very funny thing came out of this
tariff on chicory. When Baron Babant,
an extensive chicory raiser in France,
heard of it he thought the tariff was on
raw chicory, az it ought to be, and will
probably be if the next Congress is as
wise as the last one, and he came over
here to raise it. But when he found
there was no tariff on the raw roots in
the states he went to Canada, saw Sir
John Macdonald and said:
eff Canada will put tariff on raw
chicory l will plant four square miles in
Manitoba"
"Then we'll do it," said Sir John; and
he did.
Last spring / visited Baron Babant's
4,000-acre chicory farm in Whitewood,
Manitoba, on the Canadian Pacific. He
proposes to supply all Canada with
chicory and send his surplus raw chicory
over to be manufactured in the United
States without paying any duty. His
fall crop is now coming to Detroit to
be manufactured.
1t is funny about the price Of chicory,
too. 1t used to sell for ~ cents per
pound wholesale. Competition brought
it down to 10 cents, then to cents,
then to cents, then TO cents, and
now it is offered wholesale at 81 cents.
Our retail grocers arc keeping the news
from the people and still selling chicory
at II cents per pound, when they could
sell it at cents.
By and by, if we get tariff on raw
chickOry, every farmer can raise sub.
stitute which will improve his coffee.
One-half chickory gives a delightful
flavor to coffee. Good coffee costs b
cents pound. 1t is one of the bur.
dens of our farmers and mechanics to
buy it, for we all drink coffee. But
soon chickory will be one OF our own
crops, and 5000, 900 will be saved b.
our country every year.
Putting in chickory, flax, beet sugar,
and raising more sheep for wool, will
reduce the acreage for wheat; and with
the present tariff of % cents against
Canadian wheat, rye, oats and barley.
we will next year consume our surplus
wheat, and then wheat will 20 to dol
lar a bushel in Dakota, farm lands will
go up, the farmer will again, after fl
teen years of low prices, be on top-arl.l
all through the wise protection put
around us by the Mckinley bill.
ELI PERKINS (Melville ID. Landon),
2O8 West End Avenue, New York.