Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-08-05
The Tariff and Maine Farmers,

the Dingley tariff law is a burden and
not blessing to them. OF course the
| farmers of Maine know that they aie
prospecting under the Dingley law as
| they never prospered before, and OF
| course the editor Of the Sentinel knows
| it too, but being Democrat he does
not allow himself to admit this very
| evident truth but on the contrary
| continues to emit calamity whines and
attempts to tell the farmers of Maine
that agriculture in this State is on d
rapid decline and that they are fast
growing poorer.
In his latest array of figures he tells
Maine farmers that they are forced to
pay % per cent more for plows, 33
per cent more for threshers, 80 per
more for harrows and 25 per cent MOI e
for cultivators than people abroad
have to pay for these same articles.
He does not give the authority for his
figures and it is quite possible they
We're taken from the place where his
inexhaustible supply of humOr is
stored. Anyway. if there is such a
difference in cost in these articles as
stated in the Sentinel it is a little
difference to the Dingley tariff, since
upon none of these articles mentioned
is there Il tariff greater than 20 per
cent!
The Sentinel's logic regarding this
alleged difference in prices in farming
implements here and abroad is only
equallcd by that shown a little later
in the same article when the farmers
of Maine are assured that as result
of the Dingley tariff they are forced to
pay 60 per cent more for kerosene than
the people of England have to pay.
Now, as kerosene is on the free list
under the Dingley law and subject to
no duty whatever, it is little
hiiii'ull GO see NLdt tHt pito'it ''Aii'
has to do with any difference in the
price of oil between this country and
England. However, it is only d
sample of Democratic campaign logic
when the editor of free trade organ
tells us that an article which is on the
free list is 60 per cent higher in this
country than abroad as a result of the
tariff laws.
But as to those agricultural imple-
ments which the Sentinel says cost %
or SO per cent more here than abroad
though as q matter of fact the tariff
upon them is only 20 per CENTS the
few dollars difference in price ri
matter over which the farmers of
Maine are making any complaint
under existing conditions? Ploughs,
crowbars, harrows and cultivators do
not have to be bought every year. On
the contrary, with decent care they
last many years, but every year the |
Maine farmer raises hay which is |
protected to the extent of $500 a ton, |
potatoes which are protected to the |
extent of 20 cents a bushel, beans to |
the extent of As cents a bushel butter |
and cheese to the extent of six cents |
a pound, eggs to the extent Of five
cents a dozen, apples to the extent of |
III
Of the field, orchard and garden in like |
Farming implements last |
every year and for them the Maine |
farmer is getting far higher prices |
than in the Old days of hard times |
under the Wilson free trade measure.
If any proof is needed on this point |
ct us examine the figures of the Bos-
-on wholesale market in the summer |
If 1897 before the passage Of the |
Dingley law and compare them with |
he Boston market figures for the |
present summer, just 10 years later. |
Here are the figures for the Boston |
wholesale market in July 1897 as pub |
ished in the Maine Farmer at that |
line and they show that agricultural
were then bringing the
following prices: Oats, 81 to 2Sh
cents a bushel; choice hay, SIT to
s17.50 ton; good hay SIS to SIG a ton;
Dat straw, $3.50 to $500 a ton; pork,
per barrel, $11; hams 9h to 1917 cents
a pound; spring lambs Sh to 1917
cents pound; best creamery butter,
II to 17h cents per pound; cheese, ~
to TX cents a pound; eggs (Eastern)
II to IA cents dozen; apples, $500 to
$500 a barrel.
A recent copy of the Boston Daily
quotes the wholesale prices
for the same articles in the same
market under the Dingley tariff law
as follows: oats, 54 to IS cents Il
bushel; choice hay, s25 a ton; good
hay. $3.50 to s24 a ton; oat straw,
$40 to S11 q ton: pOrk from $3.50 to