The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-07-11
FARMERS WAKING UP
Discover That Tariff Is No Bene-
 fit to Them
TAX UNJUST AND UNFAIR

sLet Us Have a Union of All Those
 Opposed to the Monopoly Tariff to
 Overthrow It," Says Master of Wash
 ington State Grange.
 What is there a farmer sells which he gets more for and what is there farmer buys which he gets for less on account of high protective tar1f2
 This question, which was put to an audience of farmers at an Indiana po- ntical meeting, some years ago, ad- mits of but one answer-not a single commodity. The farmer himself is re- afzing, after mature reflection and ex- perience, that the tariff on wheat, oats, cattle and other farm products does not benefit him, although 1t may bene- fit the middlemen who speculate in those products. We exported last year 4,OOO, ,OOO bushels of wheat and only els. Are the farmers, then, in danger of having foreign wheat dumped on our shores if the tariff is taken off? Some few doubtless may harbor such a delusion. For instance, a MT. Power of North Dakota in his evidence be- fore the senate investigation commit tee on high prices shows that he needs some little enlightenment on the point. The following dialogue took place:
 Senator CIarke-Isn't the price of wheat-the world price-dxed by the markets of the world?
 MT. Power-A debatabIe question that has puzzled me some.
 Senator Clarke-Why has 1t puzzled you3 It hasn't puzzled anybody else. Why would the people of Canada, for instance, export any wheat into North Dakota if there was a five cent pre- mium on 1t per bushel?
 MT. Power-I don't know.
 Senator Clarke-Do you know to whom they would sell it after they got it there?
 MT. Power-I do not
 The fact is that the A1driches, Paynes and Lodges are secretly smil- ing at the simplicity of those farmers who are wrapped up in the comforta- ble belief that they enjoy protection under the tariff
 All the farmers, however, are not 90 easily hoodwinked as this witness was or assumed to be. The national grange at its last session passed the following resolution
 '~That the so called revision of the tariff as enacted at the special session of congress was in no sense along the line outlined by the grange. nor was it in conformity with the promises of the dominant party, and we, tho national grange, representing the 35,OOO,O00 farmer population of the United States, denounce and condemn the tar if laws as enacted as unjust and un- fair to the farmers of the United States, and we respectfully and. vigor- ously urge such amendments be made thereto as will be just and equitable to the producing classes of this country, which industry underlies and sustains all of the industrial, transportation and commercial interest of the grand est and most glorious country the world has ever known"
 The master of the Washington state grange, MT. c. B. Kegley, in his ad- dress to the officers and members of his organization at the twenty-irst an- nual session couple of weeks ago strongly indorses this view. He says:
 Tn a recent speech in congress a prominent New England manufac- turer, who was recently elected to con- gress on the tariff issue by an over whelming majority, characterized the recent tariff revision as a deliberate bunko game from start to finish and demanded an extra session of congress to revise the tariff. I most heartily approve this and would suggest that resolutions be passed by you demand ing an extra session for the revision of the tariff along grange lines. Fur thermore, instead of waiting for tar if commission to be appointed by the government to make recommenda dons to the president or allowing congress to waste the time of special session in which the same bunko game might be played, I would suggest that the best thing to do would be for the farm CTS, independent manufacturers and &abor organizations, as representing the producing and wage earning class, to organize a commission of their own and determine on the changes in the tariff which they shall demand abso- lutely. This is the line on which I should like to see the matter fought out, and would like to see the Wash ington state grange at least on record as ready t0 co-oDerate in this matter on these broad lines. In union is strength. Let us have a union of all those opposed to the monopoly tariff to overthrow it."