Daily Kennebec journal., 1911-04-24

hoped for a reasonable, svrf,metIical
tariff on manufactured goods founded on
scientifically acquired information. How
can that ever be if we are TO proceed
against the farmer with this crude vio-
lence?
Orly After Careful Examination.
am not one of those who believe that
a policy should always continue because
it has continued century and a quarter
Because butter, wheat, oats, and pota-
toss were protected in 1924 is not in it
self Il reason why they should be protect
"a now. Because even the Democratic
tariff makers in 1857 and again in 1894
considered il wise to give the farmers "A
substantial protection is not Il coinprll-
ing reason to ConStrain our acts here and
now But when wise men and partially
wise men in certain situations have at
different times reasoned out the same
line of action. what they have done has
attained great authority and dignity
Statesmen and jurists have used their
acts as the mariner uses the lighthouse.
They have been disregarded only after
the fullest investigation and the most
mature deiiberation.
brushing aside the experience of our
past. We are disregarding the progress
sive and cnlightened conclusions of
craftsmanship in Germany France, and
England ard are doing this great thing
without investigation worthy the name
one night the States-General of France
voted king off the throne and changed
the order of society That stands as the
e
action. But the people of France had
read. studied. and pondered for nearly
10 Years the Red Book of Necker. where
in the greatest finance minister of tbs
age had set forth the state of the ma
ton. You are proposing today great
new policy that goes to the very social
fabric of America, and where is the great
committee of this House that has probed
to the bottom of it, and where is the
book that has spread its Investigations
before the American people?
Necessity of Accurate Reasoning.
To many this thing seems simple. Be
cause Canada has new world conditions
which. generally speaking. are Ike our
own. therefore there can be no harm IN
letting hcr agricultural products COM
pete in our markets That seems plausi-
BILE and il has the ear of the American
people today. because We have always
thought of tariffs as applying chiefly to
manufactures. But right here let us
stop and examine. for here is the FORK
of the road.
1t was my good fortune once to hear
from the gallery of the English House of
Commons d dchat" on the management of
English railways And one plausible
orator. with much confidence of asser-
'iln. declared that statistics showed the
loss of lile TO be far greater ON Ameri-
can roads than on English. From this
he deduced conclusions unfavorable to
American skill and capacity. But a mem
her from the Government bench answer
ed him: ] do not know the name or the
rank of that modest. wel-poised gentle
man. have no doubt he had been train
ed in one of those two great universities
where the scholars of England-greater
than her Wellingtons and her Nelson's
have for a 1860 years taught the youth OF
England To search for and know the
truth. Taking up the statements so ae-
trimental to the United States. so tiatter-
ing to English pride. he admitted that
the statistics did show "A greater loss OF
life on American railroads but he
pointed out that America was very
great country, that many thousand miles
If her road had been extended hastily IN
sparsely populated regions, 1t %as to be
expected that there would be great ias-
of life on such roads Flt in the older
settled East. where fixed conditions pre-
vailed the loss of life was So little as to
show that America skill al pas.ty
were not ta be compared CnfayorahiE
with English. d. nat recoul this var
rative to read any le son TO ac trittant
and discriminating intenects in this Hall.
do il merely for the sake Of the argu-
:aent ] am about to make. TO arrest your
attention. especially the attention OF the
Democratic ma to.ity before it pushes
tome this blow at the pr sperity of the
farmer and the social life CT ing Nation.
Distinction Between Farm Home and
Factory.
The fact that Canada has New
World conditions, that her labor is not
crushed down as in the older coun-
tries. furnishes, | viii admit, a fair
argument that you might with SAFETY
rtmo"c the duties on manufactured
goods in the future when conditions OF
labor shall have equalized. The ar
gument, then. may some day be sound
when applied to factories Is IL
sound when applied to farms:
NO: AND FOR THIS REASON,
THAT THE FARM IS PRIMARILY
NOT A FACTORY, But A HOME.
Capitalists gather up money. build
mills, call in laborers, and turn out
product for the main purpose of pay
ing dividends on the capital they have
gathered up.
The farmer acquires land that he
may found a home.
1t is not the lack Of bricks machin-
cry, or factory sites that checks the
expansion Of factories, but the disap-
pearance of dividends.
The expansion of farms ceases only
when there is no more land under the
western sun.
Dividends are the fundamental con-
ditions of manufactures.
Areas of land for homes are the
fundamental condition of agriculture.