Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-03-08

from all the outside world.
Imports of meat and meat products
into Germany during the calendar
years 1900 to 1905.
(From official German report.)
Weight.
Year. (pounds). Value.
1900 ........ 114,S17,600 $13,581, 200
1901 ......... 120,204,500 15,008, 800
1902 ........ 125,356,40O 1915, 800
1903 ........ 76,450,500 9,261, 100
1904 ..... :. 65,795,000 8,304, 500
1905 ......... 122,400,100 (a)
Values not yet computed for 1905.
Even if we should have made a
treaty giving us all of this trade, it
would have fallen long way short Of
the proposed $50,000,000 to 100000
600 per annum.
Last year we exported meats to the
total amount of $1S2,552, 149. The Ger
man trade is desirable, but we could
not afford to foster 1t at the expense
of injustice to our other European Gus.
toners.
Prove All Things; Hold Fast to That
Which is Good.
I'VE always have with us the ideal
lst who spurns present good and wants
to try something else. He always
wants to keep moving on. He would
not stand pat in a clover field.
Il wish to call the attention of the
farmer, the miner, and the manufact-
urer to the value of our own market
and the improperly Of trading it off or
destroying it in the hope of other mar
kets abroad. A country's prosperity
depends on its ability to consume its
products rather than upon it's ability
to export them.
i am from great agricultural
state and we feel the greatest inter-
est in Iowa in the market for our
farm products. Secretary Wilson in
his recent report gives a series of fig
ures upon the increase and value In
production of the American farms that
are SO stupendous as to startle the i'm
agination. His estimates show that in
the year just closed the output of the
farms of this country were worth So
5O0,O0O,000 and, although we may com.
plain OF winds and rain and heat and
cold, Iowa is the most favored of all
the states. Look to the north and the
best part Of Minnesota lies next to her.
The best of Wisconsin is It's south.
westerly portion. Illinois is a greatly
Favored state, but her richest land
joins Iowa. North Missouri is the best
part of her neighbor on the south.
northeastern Kansas reaches up
toward Iowa and is the best part Of
the Sunflower state. Eastern Nebras-
ka is the best OF that state, and the
south eastern part of Dakota is the
fairest and most fertile of all the lands
OF that growing and prosperous state.
How Prices Are Governed.
iowa is bounded on all sides by
zone, of fertility. The market to con-
sumo this vast product must be a
great one. 1t is common statement
that the prices Of all of our farm pro-
ducts are fixed in the markets of Eu-
rope; that the farmer is therefore con-
cerned in the foreign rather than the
domestic market. This statement is a
fascinating one and has done great
service in behalf of the free traders in
many campaign in the past.
1t was especially effective in the
south where the soil had been scourg.
ed by slaves and no manufacturing
enterprises had supplied home mar
ket for any of their products. Now
that in all parts Of the south much
OF their cotton is manufactured in
their own mills, the people there have
come to realize that the price Of their
products sold abroad depends upon the
amount OF their surplus and the more
that Is consumed at home the smaller
the surplus, and the smaller the sur.
plus the better is the foreign price.
This simple factor in the problem
of prices and markets Is now becoming
well understood among the planters
and farmers north and south. The for
eign market is of value to our farm
producers in taking that part of their
output which can not be disposed of at
home.
I'm old Virginia in the early colonial
days they had currency of tobacco.
They had money to burn
Under republican tariff law thew
are enjoying through all the south a,
prosperity unequaled in the country's
history and have more money than ey-
er before.
Most Valuable Consumers.
I'VE are daily furnished with eyi.
dence of the superior value not only of
home market, but of the greater
value Of that market when the con-
sumer is brought nearer to the pro.
Queer.
The manufacturing consumer in the
west is of more value to the farmer
OF this vicinity than like number of
consumers on the seacoast.
"The home market is the best and
the nearer home the better. the free
traders time and again in many years
have taken the American workingman
up into a high mountain and offered
him the markets of the worla il he
would only give up his own-the great
home market. The offer has at times
misled the voters of the republic and
always with the same disastrous re.
suits
Napoleon said that the political
economists are mere visionaries who