Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-04-01
RECIPROCITY AND FLAX.

All argument recently advanced NY
a reciprocity advocate was that TAX
ing the tariff off of fax would en-
able North Dakota farmers to get
seed fax from Canada cheaper than
they could buy it on this side of the
line, says the Grand Forks Times.
The fax question has not received
much attention and yet it is one of
the most important items in the pro.
posed agreement. In 1908, the last
statistics at hand, North Dakota pro.
duced 8,376,S54 bushels of flax. At
$2.17, the current price today for No.
2, which is fair average, that crop
would be worth $l7,l77,73S. In 1909
the entire flax crop of the United
States was 25,S50,0OO, so that North
Dakota produced one-third of the en-
tire output, and this country produc.
es almost all the fax of the world
certainly all that enters into con-
sumption on this continent.
We have a market one-third of
which is supplied by North Dakota
produce which under this agreement
it is proposed to share equally with
Canada We are willing to admit
that by fencing off this market for
ourselves, we have been able to make
the demand so great that flax today
is selling for $2.O7 to 1927 per BUSH
Ell. But that will only give the farmer
an income of approximately $40 per
acre and against this he must count
the cost of fighting flax wilt which is
familiar to the farmer of this state,
if not to the theorists.
There is now a tariff of twenty-five
cents per. bushel on flax seed. Dur.
ing, the year ending June 80. 1910,
there was imported into this country
from Canada. 1.4lO,39S bushels of fax.
Now accepting the theory of the advo.
Gates of reciprocity that the agree.
ment will lower the cost of food
product the amount of the tariff, it is
evident that it will have the same ef-
feet on other articles. This would
mean lowering of the price of fax
twenty-five cents bushel, if the tariff |
Is removed, and make a depreciation
Of $3.50 per acre on ten bushel crop,
or $3.50 on hundred acres of flax.
But the reciprocity advocates pass
the question over with the sneer that
it don't amount to anything anyhow,
for flax is new land crop. Suppose !
it is a new land crop 1t is the crop
that makes the difference between
prosperity and poverty to the man
who has either settled on a claim or
purchased land in the great regions
of our own state which are just be-
ing opened. The farmer can get a
fax crop the first year after the sod
is turned and even when the blowing !
is done in the spring. He can not |
raise any other crop under those !
conditions with success. The flax crop
is the first money producer on the
new land, and it is what has given
this state its great attraction for men
with plenty of muscle and energy !
and little cash. 1t is what has made a
home and independence possible to
thousands who live in this state, and |
it is what will make the same things
possible to thousand more.
The theorists want to take from !
this class of people $3.50 an acre by |
giving the market to Canada on equal !
terms with ourself: and they believe
the farmers are fools enough to be-
lieve it is for their own good. Such |
advocates have little introspection or
little appreciation of the intelligence
of the farmer.
But let us see who is benefited by j
this free fax deal. One copcern. a
trust, practically utilizes all the fax !;
seed. The oil as we'll as the by-pro- !:
ducts are largely, if not entirely used |