The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-04-15
kiefer and KartOffeIn.

There is much else in potatoes than
starch, water and ash. Often an anal
ysis yields a large percentage of pol
tiles, with now and then a trace of
statecraft. Outside of the potato. but
related to it, there is also a diversity Of
| interests. There is always the man
who raises them and the man who
buys and eats them. Now and then
there is the politician who thinks he
sees in it something that he can turn
| to his personal advantage. Then po-
| tatoes get into party campaigns and
| figure in the Congressional hecord and
| become objects of the solicitude of the
| statesmen who look after our welfare
and kindly guide our activities. AT
| other times the potato loses interest
to the politician as SUCH He regards
| it then simply as an edible entalling
demands upon his purse.
The caro- dacy Il = OF these stat IS
men for the mayoralty Of our city
makes his relation to potatoes worth
considering, particularly as he now
poses as the especial friend Of the men
who do not raise potatoes, but who
buy and consume them on their tables.
L pOSS
as the particular friend and guardian
of the men who raise them when he
was essaying the role of statesman.
Let US consider what we may term
the relatively of Kiefer to potatoes,
in the light of the record he made
while he was under the fond delusion
| that he was representing the Fourth
congressional dStr.cI IN lhe Fifty
| third congress.
The man who raises potatoes regards
them from the point of view of income.
| When market prices are up, he smiles;
| when they are down, he glooms.
| When potatoes were 81 a bushel, as
| they were one year under protection"
| the producer rubs his hands and whis-
ties loudly. When they are 10 or 10
cents a bushel, as they were one year
under Democratic free trade" he
rubs his chin and groans. When the
| price is 81, the man who does not raise
them, except on his fork, bids the good
wife be careful of them, and suggests
that corn meal is good substitute
| and cheaper. If he works for day
wages, he and the family eat more
n,ush and less potatoes. When they are
Is or 20 cents a bushel, potatoes resume
| their position on the menu In other
words, the wage Garner finds cheap
| potatoes benefit to him and dear
ones damage. Wages do not go up
when potato prices do. His interest is
| to get as many potatoes for his dollar
as he can get.
| In 1894 Kiefer was in congress, and
| the question of taxing things men eat
and wear was up. Potatoes had been
taxed rs cents a. bushel. if imported.
Mr.. Wilson proposed to reduce this to
Is cents. He should have put them
on the free list. Against this reduction
| the statesman from the Fourth set his
face and tongue. He made a speech.
In 1t he enlarged on the number of
! farmers in his district who grew po-
| tatoes; he told how, under a tax OF
rs cents, the farmers had been getting
an average Of 81 1-3 cents a busheI.
| and how, If the tax were reduced, DO
tatoes would be so cheap that "our
potato growers in Minnesota will be
left, so far as finding a home market
for a manufactured article is con-
| cerned." The starch factories, (which
have made the farmers Of my district
| happy and prosperous" would be wip-
ed off the face of the earth with DO
tatoes coming in from Canada" Then
the statesman wiped the tear from his
eye at the thought of the poor farmer
getting less than 81 cents bushel for
his potatoes
Then he was thinking only Of the
farmer vote. He did not think of the
men who worked for day wages and
bought potatoes and for whom the
farmers 81 cents grew into round dol
lar when they bought. Now he is think
ing about the wage earners and tells