Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1911-02-03

If it were not so serious and i'm
pOrtant matter, the Canadian
reciprocity plan of the president would
provoke laughter. FOR nearly half
century, especially in the Northwest,
the farmers have been voting for a
policy which protectsd the manufac-
tuters who sold to the farmers, but
which did not protect the farmers
particle. W;th the farmers producing a
surplus of his principal gram crops and
with that surplus meeting the grain of
other countries in the export trade,
prices were inevitably fixed by Liver
Poot, the greatest export grain market
in the world. The tariff on wheat did
not help the farmer so far as prices Of
his product were concerned, but it was
elained that the growth of manufac-
during made better market for farm
products in the centers Of industry.
The fact that the tariff did protect the
manufacturer and enable him to
squeeze the farmer is generally adj
mtted. 1t was a One-sided affair, and
yet for year after year the fartnars of
the Northwest voted for a party whose
policy made dear everything the
farmer needed and without a single
compromising feature. There is moth
ing stranger in political history than
this aud yet thus has been the policy
of the republican party for years.
Now, however. when consumption Of
farm production in the United States
appears to be overrunning production.
and when it will be but matter of
iew years when this county will be
great importing wheat nation rather
than an exporting one. now, when for
tho first time tariff may actually
give tho farmer some protection, it
Is proposed to wipe it out in order to
give the manufacturers of the East, es
pecially, the wider Canadian market.
There is nothing in reciprocity which
will make the farmer get bis clothes
any cheaper, nothing to make it pos
Stole to get his machinery any less,
but on the contrary, while the manu-
tactnrer's Interests are protected, the
farmer, at the very time he has no
wheat to export and prices are high,
must meet the flood of free Canadian
wheat and the other products coming
from the houndless prairies of western
Canada now being rapidly developed.
And this proposition comes from the
chief OF the party which has fur years
been kept in power by the vote of the
farmer. So long as the tariff on wheat
amounted to nothing why it was all
right to have it and it was of use
during campaigns. But now that it
might help the farmer, it is abolished.
No wonder many strong republicans are
aghast and bewildered at this latest
turn about face.;' The Herald pre-
fers freer trade with Canada to any
tariff. Everybody in the long run
would be better off If there were free
commercial intercourse with our neigh
bors to the North. thousands OF whom.
since the immigration of the past few
year are flesh OF our flesh and bone of
our; bone. But the utter seIfishness of
a proposal which makes the farmer, as
: always, the football. and preserves
the interests of the protected manu-
facturers is 80 apparent as to be be-
yond argument. If Canadian free
wheat-ls tine, why not Australian free
wool. and free English made woolens?
Of course the Twin City commercial
1nterests with the same disinterested.
ness that prompts them to fight the
eastman distance tariff bill, 8 are
strong for Canadian reciprocity, and
with expansion of markets, and how
the farmer is coming out is as
secondary as the interests of tie small
cities in the matter of distance tariff.
The Herald believes in reciprocity
that raciprocates, not a one sided