The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-01-29
THE SAME OLD IMPLEMENT,

One Sampson, a farmer in tina Red
river valley, responds to the request Of
the Ada Herald that he explain the
difference between protection and free
trade. His explanation contains points
that fail to prick SIMPSONS hide.
Avoiding wheat, barley flax or any of
the staple products of his region. he
takes wool for his text He goes to
his account book and tells how, in 1891
1 sold wool in Crookston for IS and 20
cents a pound, and bought heavy I'M
derwear suits for 81 a suit and the
pest Minneapolis wooden blankets for
81 pound" He then computes how
many pounds of wool at 20 cents it took
to buy the clothing and blankets. In
1892 his account book shows the Same
relative prices. In 1893 he could hard
ly sell his wool for 10 cents a pound,
the Crookston dealers asserting that
they would lose money at that price.
and the wooden goods were sold at
the same price as the year before
when [ got IS and 20 cents a pound
for my wool" And Sampson doesn't
Vince as this point jabs him.
In 1894, evidently, the Crookston deal
ers dared not buy wool, and Sampson
sold his clip to "a travelling agent for
8 cents a pound" and he easily demon
strates that it then took twelve and a
half pounds Of wool to buy one pound
of blanket, "as the price Of blankets
was as before stated" The point gave
a harder jab and again failed TO nana-
trate into that region where Sampson
thinks he does his thinking. 1t does
not occur to him to ask why blankets
and underwear remained the same in
price while his wool had fallen GO ner
cent. But he does deduce the conclu-
sion that Scent wool made them ere
duce our flock of sheep" Broadening
out his explanation, he shows
that, while the value of the
imports of those useful adjuncts of the
kitchen, eggs, under the Mckinley act.
from September, 1893, to March 1, 1894
was but $143,S13, under the Wilson act
for the same period in 1S94-95. their
value was $273,771, which makes an
increase of $128,O5S, the loss to the
farmers wives" The Herald does not
state whether or not, at this pathetic
point of the explanation, Sampson's
manuscript shows a tear drop, but we
wager that SIMPSONS eyes filled and
his nose forced a sniff1e as he contem
1Nll or f,anr,
by the farmers wives, for Sampson is
a tender-hearted chicken with an i'm
paired mental gizzard
Returning to his muttons, he informs
the Herald that six weeks ago he took
a quantity of wool to the wooden mills
and got Is cents a pound and freight
paid, and received in exchange wooden
blankets at 81 a pound and underwear
at 81 suit" From all Of which Farm
er Sampson concludes that Eve farm
erS know that our business depends
upon how it is cared for and ought to
be thankful to our president, senator's
and representatives when we can OBJ
tain better prices for our goods, have
a home market and a manufacturing
establishment in each state" by which
he evidently intends to acknowledge
the gratitude of his president and
Others for caring for the business Of
farmers instead Of leaving them to care
for it themselves. Which, If true. Is
eminently proper But there are some
things in this statement Of price that
would seem to be sufficiently clear to
be perceptible even to SIMPSONS mind.
Granting, for the sake of emphasizing
this phase, that it was the election of
1892, as he contends, that made the
price of his wool cents a pound in
1894, with only travelling agents to buy
it, and that it is due to the care" Of
'our president, senators and repre-
sentatives'' that the price is now "15
cents a pound, freight paid" one other
point needs explanation, and we trust
Sampson will address his intellect to
it,
His president and assistants cared
not only for wool, but for the men who
made it into blankets and under