The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-02-08
TO GRANGE MEMBERS

Your national officers have insti-
tuted a movement to defeat the Ca
madam reciprocity agreement which
Is before congress.
Before you take any action in your
local organizations supporting the po-
sition Of your national committeeman,
STOP AND THINK.
Bear in mind that this reciprocity
arrangement with Canada is the open
ing wedge for revision of the tariff
downward.
Remember that failure to revise the
tariff downward is the rock which
crushed the republican party at the
recent election and that members of
your organizations throughout the
country had a large hand in admins
tering this rebuke, believing that your
interests would be better conserved by
lower tariff
Remember that every time you buy
a piece of farm machinery, you pay
tribute to the high tariff while the
man across the Canadian border. BUYS
the same article, made in the same
factory for less. And what is true of
farm machinery is just as true or
other necessities of life.
If you believe in the principles that
you have set in motion through the
recent election by which we will Sc
cure revision of the tariff downward, |
then repudiate the action OF those
"higher ups in your organization
who are trying to lead you round and
round in a circle.
1t has been claimed that If the
reciprocity agreement with Canada
is put into effect, Canadian agricult-
ural products will deluge this coun-
try.
Don't be misled on this matter.
If YOU will examine the market re-
port of any metropolitan paper you'll
will see that the Liverpool market for
wheat sets the price for the whole
world. In other words, the wheat
market is a world market, and the
price both in Canada and the United
States is determined in Liverpool.
How then will any change in theI
trade relations between these two
countries affect the price of wheat?
1t won't affect the price a particle,
because it can't. Both Canada and
the United States export wheaton,
lust what the worlds market deter
mines is the proper price under the
operation of the law of supply and
demand.
Some of our friends in the ma
tional Grange declare for revision of
the tariff all at once.
Well now, wouldn't that frost you
Tariff revision downward has been
an issue for years. Every time the
complished except a general upheavdl
of unrest all over the country. In
the end we had the same abuses en-
listing as before, with special privileges
in the saddle laughing at the con-
sumner and the American farmer for
being so gullible.
Now we are proposing to revise The
tariff along different lines. We are
to have an exchange of trade rela
tons with out nearest neighbor first,
and then after that we will revise the
tariff one schedule at a time, first
ascertaining all of the facts of the
case.
In the course of few years we may
be able to shift from a high protec-
tive tariff basis to a lower tariff basis
without any panics or upheavals.
Take any industry that has been
built up under the protection of the
tariff. Suddenly remove that protec-
ton, and what will happen?
That particular industry will be par
alyzed, temporarily at least. will it
not? In few months the readjust-
ment of labor and capital will be ef-
fected and then the situation will be
normal again won't il?
Now what will happen if you apply
the ak all the way through on our
special privilege industries that have
prospered under the present high
tariff duties?
Is it very hard to ascertain what
will happen? The effect will be felt
all the way through our industrial or
ganization, because capital cannot
shift quickly. Business will be de-
moralized, temporarily, until this re-
adjustment is accomplished. Capital
invested in certain industries that ex-
list because of monopoly of the home
market accomplished by keeping out
foreign commodities of the same kind.
must be withdrawn and invested else
where.
This cannot be done all at once
without a shock to our industrial sys-
tenn, and what affects our industrial
system will affect our financial svs-
tenn.
Those industries which have pros
pered by reason of high protective
duties and a monopoly of the home
market are much exercised over the
possibility of a revision of the tariff
one schedule at a time. The old sys-
tenn of tariff making has always work.
to their advantage because it allowed
congressman to trade votes on sched-
ules, practice "log rolling" in other
words. Little if any attention was
given to the economic principles uD-
DERIVING tariff schedules; the tariff
was simply political puppet buffeted
and kicked around wherever political {
debts and special priveleg dictated.
All the time this was in progress, {
the country was kept in an uproar over I
fear of a financial depression, which
the special interests assured the PEG.
pie would certainly result if their own
particular little industry was not pro-
tected in its monopoly of the home
market
Now, Mr.. Farmer and Granger, are
you going to permit yourselves to be
duped again by bad leadership, or are
you ready to do your own thinking
and stand by your convictions?