St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-25
KIEFER AND STARCH.

li.LOQSu Nv olIo IOSh. oOLiiChihhSo ~
coming SO faint as to be hardly tracea-
bic, sometimes disappearing altogether.
leaving the miner TO grope through the
wall of rock, hoping to strike IL again,
now succeeding and now utterly falling,
and, in any event, making the result of
toll hardly worth its expenditure. Then
there are, on the other hand, small pOck-
cts. rich with the auriferouS ore, in
which the minimum Of labor produces
the maximum OF product. We need
hardly tell our readers who have given
any attention to the mining operations
we have conducted in the speech deliv-
cred in congress by Col. the Hon. Mr..
Kiefer to which class of mines his speech
belongs.
That Mr.. Kiefer has a comprehensive
mind, able to grasp the abstruse prob
lens of t~ranscendental philosophy, and
with equal facility the relations of tax
alton to potatoes, only establishes. what
now no one doubts, his fitness to repre-
sent both the intellectual, the CONNER
cial and the agricultural elements of his
great district. There is a greatness
which compels appreciative approval,
as in the case of the GLOBE. and silent
admiration. as in the case of the Pioneer
Press; and Mr.. Kiefer has this greatness
if these tributes are proof of it.
We have had occasion to refer to Mr..
Kiefer's mastery of the intricate rela-
tons of taxation to potatoes, and were
obliged to pursue the topic a little
farther than that gentleman went, and
show the other relation of both 10 the
people who eat potatoes. a feature which
Mr.. Kiefer was doubtless obliged to
fOrego under the imperious fve-minute
rule. 1t is today Il pleasure to treat
of his treatment of the vital question Of
starch i'll its relations to potatoes and to
taxation; and, if we are compelled by
our impulse to reach the ultimate facts,
to 90 a little farther i'll the inquiry than
Mr.. Kiefer did, it is due to the fact that
we are, happily. not writing in the same
circumScribed limits in which he spoke.
After referring to the fact that
under" the tax of % cents a bushel
1.-THE potato product has been a source
of substantial profit to the farmers" in
those certain favored localities in his
district, MIR. Kiefer went on to say that
''the duty On potatoes as raw material,
and OH starch and deXtrine. as the
finished products, has given an impetus
to new enterOriseS." With this pro.
lection of 2 cents a pound on starch
there nave been started in my district
several starch factories, furnishing the
home market and giving employment
to labor" He Informed his hearers
that it takes $50 bushels of potatoes to
make one ton of starch, (which is
hardly 21a cents a pound for the pota-
toes themselves" The pending bill, he
said. takes off ian ever hundred per
cent of the duties on starch and a hun
dred and fifty per cent of the duty ON
potatoes" and the inevitable, alarming
and lamentable result will be that ''this
new and thriving industry Starch max
ing, which has made our far mers happy
and prosperous, will be wiped out
annlhilated."
We confess to an inability to follow
the chain of fact and deduction forged
by Mr.. KiefeI, but willingly admit that
the mental observation implied is ours,
not his. Having told US that 1.-THE con-
solidated price" of potatoes ''under pro-
lection" is 6715 cents, and also that. po-
tatoeS converted into starch have q
value of 2I cents a pound, or s1.5O a
bushel, we are left somewhat in doubt
whether il is the farmer or the starch
maker who is Swimming the cream.
Then, again, if it takes 250 bushels of
potatoes to make 1000 pounds of starch,
it Is clear that one bushel will make
eight pounds, and If one bushel costs 81
cents, hen the cost of the raw material
in a pound of starch is S34 cents.
Turning to the reports of our ship
ments of produce to foreign ports,
issued by the statistieian of the treas
ury, WE find that we are heavy export
ers of starch, the quantity having risen
from over 7,000,0 900 pounds in 1873 to
nearly 22,0cO,00O pounds in 1893. The
export price in 1898 was "a cents a
pound. 1t is a bit confusing to find
men making starch from a raw material
which makes the finished product cost
them so cents a pound. and for which.
when they export it, they get but "a
cents a pound, and we can only &C
count for it. if the figures given are
accurate, on the ground that the starch
makers are all philanthropists, losing
their money merely to make the farmers
prosperous and happy in Mr.. Kiefer's
favored localities" Possibly it is but
another of the queer products of pro-
lection, whose ways ''no fellow can
find out"
Assuming the accuracy of the treasury
figures and reversing the process, it be-
comes clear that if it takes one bushel
of potatoes to make eight pounds of
starch, and the eight pounds are worth
but 1872 cents at the port of export, then,
if the starch makers work for nothing,
realize no profit, and pay freights and
commissions besides, they cannot pay
more than 1872 cents a bushel for their
potatoes, unless, as before said, they are
wealthy philanthropists. If, then, the
effect of the tax on potatoes of 25 cents
a bushel is to increase their cost any,
where above say, 20 cents, it would seem
as if the starch men would be driven
out OF business and stop ''giving en-
ployment to labor"
We regret that u Investigations
oblige US to differ with SO profound a
student of the details of economics as is
Mr.. Kiefer, and we trust he will take
occasion to correct our errors, If we err:
but we cannot escape the conclusion
that there is a irrepressible conflict,
between starch and potatoes, or rather
between the men who make starch and
those who grow potatoes. 1t seems to
us that a starch factory must be a sort
OF price barometer to the farmer, and
that when he sees the smoke pouring
from Its chimneys he knows that pota-
] toes are under 20 cents a bushei, and