The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1911-02-17
The President and Reciprocity.

In commenting on the Presidents trip
and speeches through the middle West.
] which are calculated to advance the cause
of reciprocity. The Baltimore SIN of
recent date, says editorially:
His speech at the Corn Exposition at
Columbus was plain common sense pre-
sentation of matters that seem so obvious
| that the wonder is they should need ex-
| planation to anybody. Briefly, the ques-
ton his arguments suggest is What is the
| use of placing a duty on products of which
we raise in this country surplus that
| must seek market abroad and there
meet whatever surplus of the same pro-
duct Canada may have to sell?
Why should the farmer who raises corn
demand protection from Canada, which
raises but six tenths Of one per cent as
much corn as the United States. and
which purchases from the United States
80 per cent. of the amount consumed on
its own farms1 Why protect wheat, when
we produce more wheat than we consume,
and must sell the surplus at price fixed
in Liverpool, where it meets in competi-
ton the product of Canada and every
other country that produces surplus
above its own needs?
When the surplus wheat from both
countries is sent direct to the worlds
markets the Canadian wheat and the
United States wheat pay practically the
same freight rate. If the wheat of this
country cannot pro6tably meet the Ca
madam wheat in our own markets. how
can it meet it in the outside markets?
When the farmer sells his wheat to the
elevator people in Chicago or Minneapo-
lis he gets the same price whether the
wheat is intended for home milling or for
export, the price being that fixed in Liver
pool, less the freight rate. If the Cana
dian farmer brings his wheat to the same
place, he gets the same price-the value
of his wheat in Liverpool, less the freight
rate. The price to the domestic farmer
is therefore no more affected by the bring
ing of Canadian wheat into this country
than by having to meet it after both are
sent abroad
A West Virginia farmer some months
ago drove into Charlestown, w. Va, with
a wagon load of wheat. When he got to
the mill he asked the miller the price, and
that gentleman told him he would have to
wait little while until he heard from
Baltimore. Soon the message came. and
he was able to quote the price OF the day.
The farmer upon inquiry learned that the
price was fixed not in Baltimore, for Bal
umore does not make wheat prices, but
IN Liverpool; yet his wheat was purchased
to be ground at the mill in Charlestown,
w. Va, for the local market. If 10000
bushels of Canadian wheat had been sent
to the same market on the same day, it \
would not have affected the price, for
while the miller in Charlestown would
probably not have wished TO buy so much
Tor his own grinding, still the price would
have held firm, because it was fixed in
Liverpool, and was based on the probable
worlds supply and could not be disturbed
by an oversupply at any local mill.
These are the plain, common sense
facts of the tariff question as it bears upon
the producers of corn and wheat So
long as they produce surplus that must
seek market abroad they cannot be affect
ed in the least by allowing the products
of other counties free entry into this.
The great benefit to be derived by the
American farmers from the adoption of
the reciprocity agreement with Canada
lies in the fact that it will open the market
Of Canada to the product of the market
gardens, orchards and farms of the United
States. Already watermelons are shipped
from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and
Virginia to Canadian cities.