The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-02-19

adulteration of the food of either
man or beast ought to be WELDON
one that creates falss sense of security
is worse than nothing since it throws the
purchaser off his guard and leads him
| to neglect to use his own observation
and Judgment 1t is ex ceedinely doubt
| full if the safeguards provided for in this
bill would do much more than create
such false sense of security.
The main objections to the bill arise
out of section tive, which sprovides that
| Oh every ton of feed stuff gold. in this state
privilege tax OF % cents ton shall be
paid to the Agricultural Experiment Sta
| tion. This tax is speeiously called priv
| ilege tax'' rs it were 80 be paid by the
man ufacturer or vender for the privil eye
of selling in this state. 1t really ought
to be called tax upon the farmers
of Maine to support the Stats College,
| or it's adjunct, the experiment. station.
Every dollar of it will come out OF the
purchasers of feedstuffs-not mill
out Of the pockets of the vendors. The
latter will simply raise the price to the
farmer and all the farmer will get out OF
| it will be tag on his feed stuff certifying
| that sample analysed months before
| contained so much of protein and so
much of crude fat. The schemesis simp-
ly device &c pnt some money in the
Agricultural Station treasury. 1t is a
forced contribution from the farmers. II
20 IN iG OF al will ho t0
pay ie.
But there is another objection to the
privilege tax" Its practical effect
will probably be to discriminate
against all Maize dealers i'll feed stuffs
and in favor of dealers outside Of the
state. There is nothing in the act to
prevent the purchase of feedstuffs out
side the state anG the bringing them in
by their purchasers without tax or with
out analysis. Our liquor law provides
| that no liquor shalt be sold in this state,
an d that all liquor offered for sale shall
be liable to confscatjon. But the Su-
preme Court decided that liquor might
be brought into this state in original
packages and sold in spite Of our law.
A special act of Congress was needed to
enable the state to restrain the sale of
liquors imported into this state. Under
this decision of the court, without the aid
| OF national legislation, will it be possible
to restrict the sale of feedstuffs which
come into the state in original packages,
| by privilege tax for the benefit OF
| the Agricultural Experiment Station,
and if it is not, will not the effect OF the
tax be to estroy the trade of Maine mer-
chants in feedstuffs without checking in
any perceptible degree the sale of I'M
tagged and unanalyzed feedstuffs by
dealers outside of the state? Is the legls-
lature of Maine going TO make discrim-
| nation of this sort against its own citi-
zenss
The measure as prepared is sure to be
pernioious or futile, or both. If its effect,
as appears very likely, will be simply to
discriminate against Maine dealers in
favor of foreign ones, it will be both
| pernicious and futile, for it will de-
stroy legitimate trade in which great
many Maine people are engaged, while
it will give the farmer no protection and
the Agricultural Station no money. II 1t
is enforcible against the foreign as we'll as
the home vender, it will impose forced
contribution upon the farmers of this
state without any adequate return. II
measures are demanded to protect pur-
chasers here against alulterated
feedstuffs surely some more effective
AMI fairer measure can be constructed
than this one