The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-02-23
The Farmers Egg Basket.

Inc FARMERS Egg bdSkeC.
1t is quite time that the farmer began
to take stock. He should count his
cattle, horses, sheep and poultry,
examine into their condition, care for
them, and husband up his resources
generally. This must be done promptly,
because great change will almost i'm
mediately come upon the condition OF
the farmers. Produce from foreign
farms is to be admitted free of duty in
to the United States, causing greater
competition. more stuff in the markets,
and consequently lower prices. Manu-
featured goods from foreign countries
are to come in greater quantities, and
many of our mills must be closed or run
on part time. This will lesson the de-
mand for farm produce. The people who
have been working in the mills will
have less money to spend, and, with
the markets glutted with foreign farm
stuffs, prices will be very low. The
American farmer must be prepared.
Let us first take look into his egg
basket. Good eggs, fresh from the
farm, have been selling during the last
three or four years, until the fear of
free-trade recently settled upon the
country. for much more money than
they brought five and ten years ago.
There was reason for this, and farmers
should ponder over the reason. The
free trade people say that farmers have
not received any protection from the
Mckinley tariff. We say they have,
and we are going to show the farmers
how they were protected, why there
was better demand for their eggs and
why they were sold for higher prices.
The Mckinley tariff put duty of 5
cents per dozen on foreign eggs so as
to protect the farmers egg basket, and
this protection began on October 6,
1890. 1t made a difference at once,
because we find that we imported nearly
900, 900 doseh foreign eggs less that year
than in 1889, when there was no pro-
lection. But look back at the figures
for the next three years-for 1891, 1892
and 1898. In 1891 we bought nearly 4.
600, 900 dozen foreign eggs less than in
1890 even, nearly 1900, 900 dozen less
in 1902, aud nearly l2, 900, 900 dozen less
in 1898.
1t is thus clear that the longer We had
protection, the better it was for the
American farmers egg basket. Each
succeeding year we bought fewer foreign
egg. In 1898 we paid to foreign farm
ers less than $1,000 and we used TO
pay over $4,000 every year for
foreign eggs when there was no protec-
ton. The result was that we only
bought eggs, and not nearly so many of
them, from Canada, and from China
for the Chinese in California. Protec
ton kept the European eggs exclusively
out of the country, and almost entirely
gave the American market to American
farmers eggs.
Most of the foreign eggs that we have
imported came from Canada, and, now
that there is to be no protection for
American eggs, we must expect to pay
our millions of dollars again every year
for foreign eggs. 1t may be asked why
the American farmers cannot sell their
eggs in Canada. There are two reasons
why they cannot. There are but half q
dozen small markets i'm that country,
with a total population only one fourth
as large as New York City. This is one
reason. The other reason is that Canada
protects her farmers by tax of cents
per dozen upon American eggs, so AS to
prevent American farmers from selling
there. The Mckinley tariff protected
our farmers, but the free-trade Wilson
does not. The free-trade tariff throws
the American markets open free to the
Canadian farmers, while the Canadians
tax the American farmers. The
Canadians protect themselves, but the
Wilson bill of the free-trade party will
not protect the American farmers egg
basket.-Americdn ProtectiOnist.