Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1911-04-19

kee, Chicago and Buffalo and 95
cents in Minneapolis. Today there
is practically no barley market and
barley is, almost unstable, at a de-
cline of anywhere from twelve to
twenty cents per bushel. The presi-
dent of che of the leading commits
| sion companies of Milwaukee calls
attention to the fact that barley
| is in no sense a food product ana
there can be no excuse for putting
this on the free list if the only CD
jects in this reciprocity treaty are
to cheaper the cost of living aud to
broaden our trade with Canada y
The key to the situation is this: The
barley imported is used in the manu-
| featuring of matted liquors and not
in the manufacture of food products,
so that the removal of the duty is
simply TO the benefit of the brewery
interests of the country and not in
any manner to the interests of the
food consumers.
The Homestead is firmly convinc-
ed that the reduction in price which
Immediately followed the making
public of the proposed reciprocity
agreement will continue and that
the reduction so far will be slight
compared with what may confidently
be expected as the inevitable result
of this trade pact. Ever since Ca
NADIA began to figure as a grain
growing country grain has sold for
less in the Canadian market than
American grain has in the markets
this side of the line. A few instances
will suffice. Wheat in Kermit, in
the United States, sold on December
81, 1910, for ninety cents a bushel.
The nearest town in Canada is Este
van, where wheat sold on that date
for seventy-six cents. These towns
are only fifteen miles apart and yet
there was fourteen cents difference
in the price a bushel, the freight
grain goes through the United States
in bond. On January 10, 1911, bar
ley sold in Pembina, in the United
States, for siXty-seven cents a buShel
and in Emerson, four miles away
and across the boundary line, for
forty-two cents bushel, or twenty
five cents a bushel difference. On
the same day barley sold in Neche,
in the United States, for siXty-siX
cents and in Gretna, across the boun-
Diary line, for thirty-eight cents,
difference OF twenty-eight cents
bushel The contrast is all the more
striking in the case of the town of
Portal, the main street of which is
INT n line thn
stores on one side of the street be-
ing in Canada and the stores on the
opposite side of the street being in
the United States. On December
81, 1910, wheat sold on the Ameri-
can side of the street for ninety
cents a bushel, while on the Cana
dian side CT the street 100 feet dis
tant, it sold for seventy-five cents
bushel, fifteen cents difference.
These figures are highly interesting
and exceedingly pertinent. They
show that the American farmer, UNI
der the protective system of the
past, has received from ten to thirty
cents a bushel more for his grain
than the Canadian farmer. Were
the product CT the millions of acres
| Vi Oduduldn GRAIN JANUS W ne duhll-
| ted to the United States free of duty
/ the price which the American farm
er has received in the past must in
evitably be lowered because of the
American product coming in COM
! petition with the lower priced Cana
dian product.
That Canada could supply the
American market, even were every
acre of American land now devoted
to grain to lie idle, will not be dis
puted. Senator McCumber of North
Dakota, is authority for the state
ment that within ten years Canada
alone will be able to produce more
wheat along our own border line
than we will need in the whole
United States, although we should
raise not single bushel." He also
pointed out TO his fellow senator's,
in the course of an argument against
the proposed agreement, that there
is more wheat land west of the Red
River of the North in Canada than
west of the Mississippi river in the
| United States, all so situated that
its product can be dumped upon our
nearest markets, Duluth and Min
neapolis, in the ordinary course of
trade. Canada comprises five or six
great agricultural provinces, any
one of which would make five or six