Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-03-04

and do nothing except he has to do il
and has to be prodded and otter
finally kicked into the performance
of his plain duty.
When she has been ten years ir
an lily ventilated stable the diary
COW, no matter how valuable in he,
early years, is almost certain tc
have tuberculosis. She has moi
been able to resist the microbe.
Our senators and representatives
after they have been ten years in
the legislative stables, exposed to
the pathogenical or disease-pro.
ducing microbes of various kinds
with which these stables swarm,
should be tested for the disease be-
fore they are given an opportunity
to return; and if they react, they
should be sent to the political
shambles.
We are moved to wri i-e in this
vein because Uncle Joe Cannon,
who affects to smell of the farm, and
the leaders in the senate seem dis
posed to say, Farmers, go hang" /"
in refusing to even consider at this
session the question of reciprocity
treaties with foreign countries
having in view the extension of
markets for farm products.
They, together with the entire
country, rejoiced that the farmer
was unmoved by the panic. They
regarded him as the financial savior
of the county when New York lost
faith in her banks. They were
anxious for the farmer to get his
products into the markets of the
world and pay for the gold SO sore
ly needed to replenish the reserves
in Wall Street and elsewhere. They
all admit that, had it no. been for
the farmer with his cool-headedness
and his crops, the country would
have experienced panic much more
appalling and desolate than any
oCOII III tuc EJdSt.
Now when the panic is over and
before the debris has been cleared
away, and the farmers and stock
men ask for permission from the
government to negotiate reciprocity
treaties with France, Germany, and,
other countries, that will open up
markets that we will sorely need for
the next two or three years, they re-
ply in substance: "You go hang.
We have all we want of you for the
present. Go home like good boys
now, raise your crops and sell them
where you can; but don't bother
US. We cannot even talk about
reciprocity without bringing. down
upon US the wrath of protected in
dustries."
The real trouble with those old
buffers is that they are not in touch
with their constituents. They do
not know who made them, and they
are too old to learn. Nothing but
imminent danger of the political
block will move them.
Our enterprising neighbor, Can
ada, is blessed with legislatures that
know the needs of the Canadian
farmer. They have secnred reci-
procity treaty with France which
gives them the minimum tariff on
cattle, horses, poultry, salted meats,
canned goods, eggs, butter, cheese,
fresh and salted fish, wheat, oats,
barley, rye, corn, potatoes, fruits,
lumber, vegetables, fodder, coal and
metals. All this is at avery3 great
reduction from the tariffs levied on
the same products coming from
with which France has no
reciprocal tariff arrangements.
What, you ask, does Canada give to
France in exchange for all this? An
intermediate tariff on meats, poultry
game, cheese, fruit trees, locomotives
automobiles, lace, cotton and linen
thread, woolen goods and others of
domestic nature. What possible
harm can come to the Canadian
farmer from the importation of these
latter mentioned products the
cheapening Of which will in itself be
a benefit to him?. On the other
hand, he now has q market for cat.
tie, for example, in which he can
make the same profit the American
farmer makes and sell them for s to
% per cent less than the steer grown
south Of the Canadian line.
1t will not be long till Canada
has similar treaty with Germany
and the Argentine, and the Ameri-
can farmer will be strongly tempted
to move in increasing numbers
across the line into a country that
has some progressive statesman.
Our live stock, because of the pro.
hibitiye tariff, is shut out of Ger
many and France, where they are
sorely needed by the common peo.
pie. These nations want our stuff,
and are willing to let US in if we
will make concessions to their ex-
porters, which concessions in them.
selves without any "quid pro quo,'
or mutual reduction of tariffs, would
be boon to the American consum-
er.
We could aud did get along reas-
onably we'll so long as labor was
fully occupied and the largest por
tion OF our products were consumed
at home. Had lack of reciprocity
kept our labor employed we GOULD
have gotten along in some way; but
as all the world knows, and even
farmers now plainly see, it did not.
The great thing which the farm
ers of the west need now is a for
elgn market. The doors of the con-
tinent are closed against US. We
want to pry them open; and we can
not see what possible use farmers