The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-25
LETTERS TO EDITOR
Reciprocity As Price Regulator

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 It matters not whether by republican or
 democratic patronage, that this Cana
 dian reciprocity be ratified, or in
 what spirit, or what the impetus, whether
 political strategy or fortifying, or to
 lessen the brilliancy of elections attained
 last fall by democrats in many republican
 strongholds, it is no less the greatest fac
 tor to reduce the exorbitant cost of pro-
 vision necessities and regulate the high
 cost of the staple edibles, that the coun-
 try has ever undertaken and the repub-
 lican supporters of which, regardless of what might or may be their incentive,
 have done more in that toward that which
 should be, or what should have been
 done years since than any one. or even
 combined things that they could have
 done for the benefit of the great consum-
 ing United States of America.
 Just think, had Canadian reciprocity
 been in vogue the markets could not have
 been cornered, the necessities of life could
 have not been held out of reach of a vast number. Yes, millions of our people, as
 of recent years during the ruthless Patten starvatine, when bread sold at 10 cents the
 pound, flour for more than $S per barrel, with a reasonable reciprocal tariff ana with millions of wheat in easy access of our great grain centers Minneapolis. Du-
 luth and Chicago. Such corner would
 be impossible, because the speculator could never bull the commodity higher
 than the price should be above the cost I of production and a reasonable profit, because Canada would open the flood gates and financially drown the would-be | tyrants.
 Truly, President Taft has, regardless of incentive, supported a far-reaching meas ure toward the almost immediate reduc-
 ton of the cost of food. Especially staples. which, of course, will directly help the wage-earner.
 Now, all this talk about a reasonable
 tariff lowering the price of farm lands in the wheat belt, that is not practicable. Of course they could not be made a party to- or their price boomed exorbitantly by woud-be spectators who advertise farms at so much per acre that will produce so much wheat per acre, and they always name the price per bushel at cornered price. It would as a continual and safe average enhance said lands, in that it would make Chicago practically the wheat capital of the world and to be in the bounds of it's wheat belt will always give the lands more permanent value. Then, too, should the greater portion of
 our population be unjustly taxed for the benefit of the few wheat growers?
 Now, here is something that proves clearly and beyond a doubt that the wheat
 lands of the northwest have inflated and fictitious valuations accredited them by appraising their value as per yield at so much per bushel, figured as you will see advertised, based on the famine, or corn cred price. For comparison, the deltas of Alabama and Mississippi are just as pro- ductive in cereals as the northwest, then. | too, can be grown the vast crops of cotton and cane. Now, why shouldn't these shore lands be worth, with their advant- | ages of mild climate, better markets am cheap labor, honestly, why shouldnt t they | be worth as much If not more? This is | why. they are sold, based on their real | productiveness per price, asked at only | reasonable profit above cost of produc- | ton. Won't our rich lands produce just | as much corn, oats, barley, rye, in fact | all cereals. with the possible exception of wheat? Just think of our diversified crops, which their climate will not permit. | So you readily see that the majority is I taxed to pay dividends on those fictitious valuations made possible my some boards | of trade, as a means of unjust and righteous manipulations. Look how prices have been equalized in the last few weeks,