Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-01-10

Cost of Living Increased 30 Per Cent
by Advance of Commodities Con-
trolled by Corporntions-Tarif Re-
form Necessary Tor Relief From
Trust rlumdcrinG.
The Society of Equity at its late an
nual convention decided on the follow
ing minimum price scale for agricul-
tural products:
Wheat, 81; corn. 40 cents until Jan.
1. so cents from Jan. ! to April ! and
SO cents from April ] until the next
meeting of the society; oats, 10 cents;
cotton, l. cents, based at New York:
hogs, $3.50; cattle, So; hay, Sl4. With
the exceptions of cotton, all prices are
based on delivery at Chicago,
Those minimum prices arc very rea-
sonable in comparison with the price
the trusts are charging for their prod
ucts, but the trusts are protected by
the tariff i'll fixing the price of their
products, whereas the farmers have
comparatively no protection. The tar
if duties provided in the agricultural
schedule of the Dingley bill cannot add
to the price of those farm products the
Farmers have placed their minimum
price upon, because the price is fixed
in the worlds markets., where the sur
plus is sold in competition With Il like
surplus from other countries. Take
wheat, for instance. upon which there
is a tariff duty of % cents Il bushel.
Does that protect the wheat grower by
increasing the price? The market
price at Chicago nswer the question.
which for months has been about rs
cents a bushel and will probably be
lower when navigation closes and the
Argentina crop in January begins to
compete in the European markets.
No tariff, however high. can over
come the law of supply and demand
if there is a surplus produced that
must be sold in the open markets of
the world, and the Republican politi-
clans when they fixed the rates in the
Dingley law on wheat, corn and other
cereals only did so to make Il show of
protecting he farmers ON their prod
ucts, so as not to appear one sided
when they fixed the high tariff duties
which protect the trusts in charging
high prices for their products.
The Republican trainers of the tariff
'diu not pretend to protect cotton, but
placed it on the free list, and cotton
has been higher in proportion than
wheat, which is supposed to be pro-
tected by the duty of % cents a bushel.
Ihe duty of 10 cent il bushel on corn
and oats has not increased the price of
those products, for, while the price of
cotton has been advancing, the price of
these protected products has been fall
ing.
Since 1897, the year the present high
trust protective law was passed. the
price of all commodities has increased
on the average nearly 80 per cent,
and if the protection Oil farm products
was equally effective the price Of farm
products would have been likewise in
creased. The plan of the farmers com
posing the Society of Equity TO in
crease the price Of wheat, corn, etc.
is not to sell until the price at Chica-
go reaches the minimum they have set.
But how can that be done with wheat
Tor instance, Which so many farmers
are compelled to sell to pay their debts
and so many others are obliged to sell
for lack of storage rooms? The present
low price of wheat and the determina-
tion of the members Of the Society of
Equity and of the farmers unions in
the southwestern states to hold for bet
ter prices have probably induced half
the wheat growers of the United States
TO hold back their crop. Yet the mar
ket price at Chicago is barely steady
at II cent Il bushel. which is the
world price less freight and charges.
The remedy the farmers should in
sist upon is tariff reform that would
reduce the price of all they buy by
taking from the trusts the tariff protec-
ton which has allowed the trusts to
so enormously increase the price of
their products. If the cost of running
the farms was thus decreased. the low
price OF wheat, corn, oats, etc, would
be equaliZed and farm labor would not
nave to demand such high wages. The
prosperity the farmers have enjoyed
1oA INC past lew years mas been III
spite OF the trust protecting tariff and
not by virtue of it. Good crops in the
United States and poor average crops
abroad have kept up the price Of
wheat, corn and oats and other farm
products, but this year there are fair
average crops the world over, and
prices are therefore low. SO the farm
ers have to sell at the price fixed i'll the
free trade markets OF the world and
buy in the trust protected market here.
n the only organization that will pro-
tect the farmers from this upper and
neither milestone is to organize polit-
Icalty to reform the tariff which thus
plumbers them.