Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-02-11
JOHN coWNlE sUPPoRTs REcIP.
RocIrv AND TAKES RAP At
LAFE YOUNG.
CANADA CAN NEVER BE
GREAT CORN COUNTRY
Says Young Acts as II Farmers Were
NumbskuiIs When he Supports Ship
subsidy and Fights Reciprocity
cownie AnaIyxss Conditions in Can.
ada and United States.

Des Moines, Feb. 1.-THE man who
Of the Iowa farmer by shouting himself
! red-faced against Canadian reciprocity
| and then gives his vote and his infiu-
| ence in the United States senate for
the passage Of a $4,0O0,000 year South
American ship subsidy is playing the
| Iowa farmer for a numbskull.
That is the opinion of John Cownie,
former member Of the state board OF
control, more than forty years an Iowa
| farmer, and all that time a thorough
republican and a careful student OF the
tariff as 1t affects the Iowa farmers
| interests.
There is nothing, absolutely moth
| ing, in the proposed reciprocal arrange
lnent with Canada which Senator Late
Young denounces, to hurt the Iowa
| farmer" said Mr.. Cownie yesterday in
explanation of his opinion. AS for the
South American ship subsidy, which
passed the senate the other day with
Senator Young's assistance. that is
chiefly graft for the great ship own
| ing corporations Apart from that, it
| is intended to encourage an importation
of corn and beef from Argentina and
other South American countries that
will in time be positively detrimental to
! the Iowa farmer"
| Farmer Should Investigate.
| 1T is time for the Iowa farmer to
do some figuring for himself on the
tariff" continued Mr.. CoWnie. Il used
to think that tariff schedules We're
sacred and accepted them just as the
politicians in congress made them.
without question, as matter Of repub-
lican faith. 1 remember that when 1
used to make campaign speeches to
Iowa farmers I pleaded almost with
tears for the infant industries Of the
manufacturing states Of the east That
was twenty and thirty years ago, and
still campaigners talk to the farmers
about those same infant Industries
Gracious. isn't it about time that the
Iowa farmer understood that they are
full grown now and no longer infants :?
When the Iowa farmer reads about
Andy Carnegie's hundreds Of millions
| of dollars and other fortunes like it
made out Of steel how can he continue
to believe that eastern steel industries
Iare still infants and unable to stand
alone?
IF the Iowa farmer Will study the
proposed arrangement with Canada
carefully. I do not see how he can fail
! to understand that it can not do him
any injury whatever. In the first place,
most of the duties now put on agri-
| cultural products are of little or no
value to the western farmer. When
the eastern congressman get together
to protect their manufacturing and
| they have put a tariff on everything
that the farmer buys. they agree that
they must throw some sop to the
! farmer. so they put tariff on pota-
toes and corn and poultry and butter
and eggs and few things like that.
This tariff is Of no value whatsoever,
because the western farmer can meet
any competition on these products.
Who would import potatoes, for in
stance: The only time that it
was ever done was many years ago
when the crop in the United States
was total failure. and then the tar
if was tax on the consumption of
every bushel of potatoes used The
tariff on most agricultural products is
merely sop to the farmer to get him
to accept the high tariffs on eastern
manufactured goods that's all.
Iowa Not Wheat State.
| Let US take the various items of the
Canada, one by one, and see how the
Iowa farmer would be affected.
"Altho of late years we have been
doing better here in wheat growing,
Iowa is no longer a great wheat pro-
ducing state. and the great majority of
farmers purchase their flour. If the
free importation of wheat from Can
ada will lower the price of flour some-
what, the farmers, as we'll as the res
iients of our towns and cities would
be the gamers.
But l doubt if there would be much
change in price. since the European
market is largely depended upon both
by the United States and Canada for
disposing of surplus wheat and on the
price in Europe largely depends the
value of the wheat in the home mar
ket.
1.-The growing of flax in Iowa, for
| merly leading industry. is now prac-
| tically abandoned with the result that
| the price is now three times what it
formerly was, other states also evil
IDENTIFY abandoning the crop. Linseed
oil. which only few years ago was
| selling at SO cents per gallon, now
| costs over 81 per gallon. That increase
has almost made painting prohibitive
and adulteration has been common in
paints. If fix seed could be brought
from Canada duty free. Iowa has the
! mills already standing to grind 1t into
oil, some OF them now idle. With such
an arrangement Iowa labor would be
employed, and paints and OIL would be
| cheaper to Iowa farmers and we would
all be gamers. Oil meal for feed would
also be cheaper to Iowa farmers and
breeders.
No Corn In Canada.
Canada can never be a corn growing
country, and as this cereal is absolutely
necessary to fatten all kinds Of live
stock where fully finished of, we should
have a market in the north for our
surplus corn with the lowering Of Can
adam duties on corn. This Is now
especially desirable because the south
ern states are awakening to the posi-
bilities Of corn-Erowing and they are