The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-04-15
!. NEWS OF THE NORTHWEST -.
Digging UNDER
FOUNDATION OF
own PROSPERITY

Pembina Pioneer Express: In urg.
ing the passage Of the reciprocity
treaty the manufacturers of the coun.
try are digging under the very founda.
tons Of their own prosperity. For 1Ot
years farmers have been taught tina
protective tariff while OF no direc
benefit to the farmer, would create 9
"home market In which he could dis
pose of his products with manifest ad-
vantage This doctrine was always
disputed by large number Of free
traders and which persons were most
ly allied with the democratic party
The republican party was the natural
home of the protectionist. These
parties were so evenly divided that the
issue as between them would have
been very close if it had not been that
large part of the farmers, under the
lead of such men as Horace Greeley
of The New York Tribune and others,
believed in the doctrine of protection
and took that broader view Of ulti-
mate benefits for the whole country
that such doctrine inculeated.
Now, after all these years of build
ing, when for the first time in history
the farmers begin to find some benefit
in that home market which they have
created when they attempt to enter
that structure which is of their own
construction and built at their own
cost, now a large part of the republic
can party with the president in the
lead, refuse them the shelter and pro-
lection of that building
II this is what protection" really
is, then 1t is certainly fraud and
bunko game There is no other pos
sible conclusion. The farmers have
bought and paid for protection and get
free trade. The gold brick scheme is
comparatively honest.
This writer has been supporter of
the theory of protection for good
many years, but when we argued that
protection would ultimately benefit the
farmers, we did not expect that Presi-
dent Taft would be the first to demand
the destruction of the ''home market"
by the wholesale importation Of farm
products from Canada free of duty.
But when the manufacturers Join
with the president in this demand they
forget how small the majority has been
for all these years for protection. They
forget that this majority has been
always most certain in the great agri-
cultural states of the middle and
northwest.
The logical and certain answer to
Canadian reciprocity as now proposed
will be. what is sauce for the goose is
sauce for the gander," and the gander
manufacturers will get it where gand-
ers usually get it, when the farmers
vote at the next and at ensuing cleo
tions. Such g change would mean a
wide spread business revolution.
In the meantime there will be bust
ness chaos and closed factories, but
the farmer will still have his bread to
eat-though he gets a smaller price
for what he sells. He can't and won't
buy so much of the manufacturer, but
he can get along far better In haro
times than the manufacturers. business
men or their employees. The bushel of
wheat that he raises ana eats himself
remains the same value to him, tariff
or no tariff year by year.
The high cost of living may be re-
duced," but even a cent loaf is be-
yond the income of the man without
work, while cent loaf may still
be cheap to the employee with good
wages.
The wave of tariff reform may land
some people on the rocks but the
farmer has a safe anchorage in such a
storm.