The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-08
ANOTHER APPLICANT.

1t would have been strange if the
cordial reception, with music and flow
ers, given to the applicants for a boun .
ty on beet sugar production should not
bring. in other beggars. When a man
lights all the gas jets in his house.
sets out sumptuous repast, hangs
punches of bank notes from the chan
deller and puts out a placard at the
front door saying that any one who
Will take the trouble to ring the bell
may come in and help himself to what
ever ne wants, he does not usually lack
Tor company So the fax manufac-
turer is now on deck, and wants II
know why he should not have a mod
est bounty Of 81 per 100 pounds for his
product. He has gone to the trouble
OF building factory, getting the farm
ers to raise flax and Transforming the
straw into the finished product, which
ne sells at the East and abroad. There
IS no complaint, as far as we know
that the industry is not a profitable
one, as it was supposed to be. or else
capital would not have engaged in it
1t Is merely pointed out that This
comparatively new industry" would
get great encouragement from a
bounty. 1t is added, of course. with
the usual calm assumption that the
people are fools, that farmers mioh+
raise a profitable and diversifvins
crop II big market were built I'M
Tor them at the expense Of the state
winch is only another way of sayinr
If they pay $125 out Of their own noo1,-
eIs Ior every 81 of advantage that they
would gain. Yet it i'll behooves anybodv
on the Republican side to "heave rocks,
al the applicants for a fax bounty.
If bounty on sugar. whv NOT ono ~,
naX? Why has not the latter a far
better claim? 1t is a product already
Oh great value to the Northwest and
IL IS as much better policy to helm alone
an old industry in hard times than to
try to start new one as it is to ami q,
to friend for the help that Won neal
rather than to a stranger. An addi-
tiOnal bounty of say 81 a busba1 noiob+
oe given 10 the producers of flax seed.
Then, since the claim Of the flax raiser
is established what is the matter with
the starch factory? This is an industry
that has helped to dispose of our NJ
tato product and keep thousands Of
oushels from rotting in the ground
Let us nave bounty of about : can+s
a pound on starch production and of
10 cents bushel on the potatoas fro,,,
WHICH Starch IS made. Let us then. in
order to be fair, give liberal boun+ias
Tor the raising Of wheat and oats and
corn and barley; let US protect and az,
courage our hens by Offering bountias
Tor eggs and let us subsidize and bonn
ty1ze everything.
why should the manufacturer ALWAYS
have the pull? What is there esne-
clally sacred about the capital thar
goes into a mill as compared with tbe
capital that goes into a farm,
which calls for state helm fo,
the one and not for the other7
Let US have fair play and no favor
ltism. If We go into the bounty bus:-
ness, let us go into it on the basis 81
equality and a grab at the pie fo,.
everybody. No one who has approved
OF the proposition to offer a bounty
for beet sugar manufacture can on
pose one for the manufacture Of fax
or or any other commodity What the
farmer ought to observe is that none
OF these people think that he shouI9
share in the benefits of state aid under
any circumstances. 1t is always the
manufacturer who is to dip his hand
into the public treasury, and the farm
er is to get rich out of it Indirectly
in that dim and beautiful future II
which we never get any closer than
to the end of the rainbow.