Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-06-07

should be importing our cotton goods
from across the ocean. What is true
of the cotton goods industry is true of
every other American industry which
is protected from the competition of
the cheaper-paid labor of Europe by
the Dingley tariff law. These prosper
Gus mill operatives make pretty good
customers for our farmers. They are
good consumers and the high wages
they are earning makes it possible for
them to pay good prices for all kinds
IF agricultural products. Has the
splendid advance in wages under the
DingIey tariff law helped the farmers
of New England? Let us see.
On July Il. 1S97-three days before
the passage Of the Dingley law-the
Boston wholesale market, as published
in the Maine Farmer, showed that
agricultural products were then bring
ing the following prices:
Oats q to 2S1z cents a bushel; choice
hay ST. to $3.50 per ton; good SIS to
SIG ton; Oat straw $3.50 to $500 a ton;
pork per ha rrel S11; hams 91a to 1O1a
cents pound; spring lambs S12 to 101a
cents a pound; best creamery butter II
to 171s cents a pound; cheese "a to IA
cents pound; eggs (Eastern) II to ii
cents a dozen; apples $500 to $500
barrel.
The Boston Daily Advertiser of June
8. 1907, quotes the wholesale prices for
the same articles in the same market,
under the Dngley tariff law as fol-
lows: Oats 81 to IS cents a bushel;
choice hay S25 a ton; good $3.50 to s24
a ton; oat straw 80 to s11 per ton; pork
from $3.50 to $3.50 per BARREL hams
Az to 1872 cents pound; spring
lambs IA to u cents a pound; best
creamery butter - to &c cents a pound;
cheese Is to IA cents a pound; eggs
UIastern) 10 to 20 cents Il dozen; APP
pies $500 to $3.50 a barrel.
In other words, under the Dingley
law the farmers Of Maine are getting
in the Boston market the following in
crease in prices over what they got
under the Wilson law: Oats 2Sla cents
more bushcl; hay IS more a ton; oat
straw s. more per ton; pork $3.50 more
a barrel; spring lambs cents
hnSt htIt TO
81. cents more a pound; cheese 6A
cents more a pound; eggs cents more
a dozen; apples $3.50 more a barrel.
Docs this splendid increase in price
Of Their products mean anything in the
way of prosperity to the 10000 farmers
of Maine, and. through them, to the
prosperity of the State? We are most
cmphaticaIly of the opinion that it
does. We believe that it has made
chants; has enabled them to consume
more of the products of our mills. thus
contributing to their prosperity and
the higher wages of the people en-
plnyed in them. and has enabled them
To enjoy in a greater degree than ever
before the comforts and convcnicnces
of life Let us see what protection
was afforded by the Dinglcy tariff law
on the articles we have noted. Here
are the prices which foreign farmers
must pay on these products before
they can come here to compete with
American farmers in their own home
market-thc best in the world: oats Is
cents a bushel; hay $500 ton; straw
81 30 per ton; hams ; cents a pound;
mutton = cents a pound; butter 6 cents
pound; cheese 6 cents a pound; eggs
i ccrts Il dozen: apples % cents a bush
cl
The above arc only Il few Of the
more important articles upon which
the farmers of Maine are protected
from foreign competition by the Ding
lev tariff law There are many others.
DO the farmers Of Maine believe that
II TINS IIthffllbI N'lC ItIlpNtu lily
would lie able to secure the present
good prices for their products? We
think not. We do not look to see them
cnthusc over the desire Of the Lewiston
sun, the Eastern Argus and other
Democratic papers for the bringing
Gree food from Canada They wish
the Dominion well but they can see no
reason why they should sacrifice their
own splendid prosperity in order to
promote Canadian prosperity. nor do
we believe that any amount of pleading
on the part of the Democratic press
will induce them to endorse such a
ruinous policy.
The Waterville Sentinel. the official
organ and mouthpiece of the State