The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1911-04-13
RECIPROCITY NOT A
JUG HANDLE"
Farmers Would Gain as
Well as Lose
Prominent Democrat Has II Good
Word for Pres. Taft.
To the Editor of the Independent

your paper relative TO Reciprocity
with Canada. | observe too that all
that has been said has been based on
presumption and assumption, ignor-
ing entirely all statistical informa-
ton.
1t is unfortunate that the ques ~
at issue is one in which party poll
+ tics should have such controlling
/ ful TIT the rugged honesty and good
sense Of so many men of all shades
of opinion have come to the conclu-
i sion to come together and discuss it
i in a decent frame of mind. And |
am glad we have president today
broad enough, wise enough, patriotic
enough and with sufficient courage to
face the issue and lay it before Con
+ gress. In order to settle the tariff
question right it must be settled to
do the greatest good to the greatest
number and not to build up monop-
olies and millionaire trusts, to rob
At the present time il is pretty well
conceded that the present high cost
of living and the growth of the num-
eroas monopolies and trusts are the
children of an unnecessarily high
tariff.
1t may not be known to many,
though nevertheless true, that | am
myself a horny-handed farmer in a
small way. | raise on my farm, not
large one. sometimes from one to
two tons of cabbages a year, for
which have ready cash market,
but not monopoly | regret to say.
Naturally | should dislike to have
my neighbors over the border send
over here their cabbages to compete
with mine. But | am in no fear, for
my farm is particularly adapted to
cabbage raising and | can compete
with the whole Canadian world in
that line, because no labor in Canada
is cheaper than mine. Soil, climate
and adaptation settle that question.
But suppose, under President Tafts
Reciprocity bill, | should find compe
tition in the cabbage business.
should not be the loser for my ten
or twelve tons of coal purchased each
year would be landed at my door
enough cheaper to more than make
up the loss on cabbages. So that
would be no bar to my prosperity.
And so it would be with many others;
what they lose one way they gain
another way.
/ Reciprocity means exchange in
productions. Today our farmers pay
% per cent, or thereabout more for
American made ploWs and farming
implements than our Canadian neigh
bors pay for the same article. With
reciprocity we have larger market
and in the competition and exchange
of productions we gain more than we
lose. American skill and ingenuity
have been able to compete with that
of any country. Foreign labor is
ever in competition with American
labor, right here
1t is not to be denied that under
r Teciprocity some few people might
for awhile suffer somewhat. but only
till things found their level. Posi-
bly, il would work some injury to the
numbering interest. But how about
the young man who wishes to build
home for himself and family?
Which class should be the favored
class-the few or many?
What we guess and what we pre-
sumo or assume in this solution
amounts to but little.
| will not burden the readers nor
your paper with a long list of sta
tistics, but in them | find that the
balance of trade even now is very
largely in favor of the American
farmers and American manufactur-
ers
Under our system of government il
is absolutely necessary to have a
tariff for revenue. but why have one
that continually makes it a burden
for SO many Of the middle classes?
l The hard WORKING wives of our farm
ers and their rosy faced daughters,
while preparing the latters trous-
seau in expectancy, must be made
/ happy as they read over the Free List
in our benencont tariff law, among
which may be found diamonds, mar
BILE statuary. works of art, arsenic.
crude opium, cat gut, aeorns, fossils
and bolona sausaEes.
One of the best Illustration show
ing the humbuGgery OF the high pro
tective argument is in the following
i poem from the pen OF the late Sam
! Walter Foss
/ The two opposing candidates went to
/ the county fair.
One had cologne upon his clothes, one
hayseed in his hair;
! One Travelled burdcned with ten trunks
that bore his twenty suits
/ One bore the soil from fourteen towns
upon his shineless boots.
/ The prim dude candidate was wise in
economic lore.
/ And soaked them full of statesman
ship till they could hold no more.
/ He cited economic laws in terms alb
struse and deep.
/ And principles and precedents until
they went to sleep.
! lie quoted from Calhoun and Clay and
Jefferson at viii,
/ From Adam Smith. Sir Thomas More,
and from John Stuart Mil.
/ From Plato and from Aristotle. Guizot
and Herbert Spencer;
/ And all the while he talked and talked
their ignorance grew denser.
| And then the haYseed candidate stood
up there at the fair
/ While his unlmbered whiskers waved
and fiounted through the air.
And told them how he raised his corn
and how he cut his hay.
And how through fifty working years
he'd made his farming pay.
| He told them how he'd drained his
swamp. and how he'd built his
fence.
And showed them what hard work can
do when mixed with common
sense.