Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-12-05
VOICES OF THE PRESS.
The Turkey and the Tariff.
(WaShingtOn PoSt.)

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The New York Evening Post whose
belief in free trade is of the intenseSt
sort, whose economic creed has always
had for it's chief tenant the Democratic
slogan: protection is robbery" dis
cusses in its issue for Thanksgiving
Eve the turkey situation in the State
of Maine and the relation thereto of
the present tariff. The Evening Post
notes with keen interest that the Lew
iston (Me.) Sun has made a seasOnablc
collection of explanations offered by
four Maine Republican papers of the
decrease in the number of turkeys
raised i'll that state under the Ding
ley tariff, tax of five cents pound Oil
dressed turkeys. These four advocates
of protection are the Waterville Mail,
the Biddeford Journal. the Bangor
News, and the Portland Press. All of
these authorities agree that protection
is not responsible for the falling off
in the annual output of turkeys and
the resultant eXaltatiOn of price. But
as to the real reason. the Evening
Post finds that these high tariff doc
tors are ludicrously at variance" AS
cited by the Evening Post, it appears
that the Waterville Mail, admitting
that so years ago there were ten times
as many turkeys in Maine as there are
today. declares that foxes and skunks
are responsible for the decrease; the
Biddefore Journal attributes the fall
ing off to a constitutional weakness
due to continual inbreeding;" the
Bangor News says that Maine farmers
can't compete with Iowa turkey
Il 81,
ply says that "it does not pay to raise
them"
There is no actual disagreement in
those explanatory remarks. Doubt
less the ravages of foxes and Skunks
have contributed to the general re-
suit. and the constitutional weak
ness" has, in all probability. operated
in the same direction. 1t stands to
reason that Maine is not physically
qualified to compete with Iowa in this
line of industry. The Portland paper
sums up the whole matter in a way
that leaves nothing to be desired in
its declaration that turkey raising in
Maine does not pay" OF course if
the business were reasonably profitable.
the market would be well stocked and
the price within reach of any thrifty
housekeeper But" says the Evening
Post, two facts are undisputed. pro-
lection has not aided the Maine farm
er, as the makers of the Dingley
schedules declared it would, and the
price of dressed turkeys has been in
creased five cents a pound to every
+ consumer Great is protection, and
Dingley is its prophet"
Yes. great is protection in spite
of hundred years of sneering at it
by the Evening Post and other free
traders. It is so great. so strong. so
deeply imbedded in the confidence of
the country that it will survive not on
ly the the shafts of the free traders,
but the more serious blows inflicted by
its protested friends, the stand-patters
the dictators of the Republican party
who stand pat on reputation of re-
ciprocity and on those schedules that
| shelter monopoly and promote oppres-
| sion. AS choice between a free trade
revision of the tariff and existing tariff
ABUSES. the country prefers the latter
And there are facts enough in the
present business situation to explain
J this preference.