The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-02-25
SAYS ABILITY TO
BUY MAKES PRICE
McCumber Declares Tariff
Does Not Affect Retail
Figures
DEMANDS PROTECTION
FOR THE FARMERS
North Dakotan Urges That
Canadian Treaty is a
obstructive Reclpro-
city Agreement

WASHINGTON. Feb. 25.--"Ey this
treaty you strike the great cereal and
stock interests OF the Northwestern
States a staggering blow. but they
will arise and return that blow with
interest"
This was warning given in a
speech In the Senate to-day by Mr..
McCumber Republican,. of North
Dakota, to the "plutocratic manufac-
turing interests in the cities whom
he held responsible for bringing about
the Canadian reciprocity treaty. Near
ly all of McCumber's constituents are
farmers. He charged that a breach
in the wall of protection had been
made at thee expense OF these tillers
of the soil. but 1t would not he the
limit of tariff revision
I'm every great war IL is not the
first blow that counts" he Numbered.
1T will not be the advantage gained
to the manufacturing interests by Ca
madam reciprocity that settles the
great fundamental policy of the coun-
try; II will be the swift stroke of retri-
butive justice that will follow.
When this Canadian compact be-
propriety Of taking up the tariff pro-
position. schedule by schedule. or sub
ject by subject. viii have vanished.
BY 1t we are taking up the proposition
schedule by schedule. The first sched-
ule Is the agricultural, and against ii
is combined every other interest in
the country. and every article Is plac-
ed on the free list. But take them
up schedule by schedule and schedule
by schedule the protective idea viii be
crushed TO death by the outraged
farming population
There liz not a single senator here"
he continued, who will have the au-
dacfty 10 say that taking the tariff off
any article which the farmer produces
Will affect the cost of living.
Ability TO Buy Makes Price.
sT wish tina. peopie of this country
could appreciate how little the tariffs
affect retail prices. Ability to buy Is
what makes the price. All prices are
based upon the financial ability of the
public. Merchants In Washington
charge higher prices than do the mer
chants OF Baltimore. because the Gus
toners of the former are able 10 pay
higher prices. Prosperity makes high
prices"
Mr.. McCumber declared that the
destructive reciprocity agreement
was the result of a campaign against
the Payne-Aldrich law waged by the
newspapers because they did not get
all the advantages they desired in the
law They had made targets OF
Aldrich and Cannon" and thereby
aroused general opposition to the ia
riff measure, he said
Let me give one note OF warning
10
great cities with their enormous
wealth. with their palatial homes.
their galleries Of art----their great IL
brarses--all made possible because
of the advantage OF the city over
country earning capacity; let me say
to them who represent the great man
ufacturing enterprises with their mil
lions of dependent laborers. that this
protective structure Of America which
has enabled them to prosper and
develop during the last forty years
must either stand as whole or fall
as whole.
~ warn them to remember that
they who strike the first blow to
undermine not mere sectional. bn,
a national ediffce are the ones who
have declared the war. 1t is they
who have sown the winds and IL will
be they who shall reap the whirl-
VINO
fefahsh'
Senator Beveridge tRepuoncan), OF
Indiana asked II II Is not true tna'
the production OF 1000 products IN
the world IL less tnan the demand
and the production IN the oniteo
states Is less tnan the consumption
In reply McCumoer said this was
not true OF the world, but II was
true Of the United states. In this
country, he said, consumption Is ex'
1T is because OF the arift TO the
cities that we are draining the eoan'
try" said Mr.. McCumoer. Remun-
Grafton Is greater In the cities ano
there are more Injuries ! want tt