The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-04-01
RECIPROCITY and
The FLAX CROP

Grand Forks Times: An argument
recently advanced by a reciprocity adj
vocate was that taking the tariff of of
fax would enable North Dakota farm
ers to get seed fax from Canada
cheaper than they could buy it on this
side of the line. The fax question has
not received much attention and vet it
is one of the most important items in
the proposed agreement. In 1908, the
last statistics at hand, North Dakota
produced S,376,S54 bushels of fax. At
s2.17, the current price today for No.
2, which is a fair average, that crop
would be worth $17,177,7sS. In 1893
the entire flax crop of the United
States was 25,S5O,000, so that North
Dakota produced one third of the en-
tire output, and this country produces
almost all the fax of the world
certainly all that enters into con-
Sumption on this continent.
We have a market pne- third of
which is supplied by a North Dakota
product which under this agreement
lit 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 fax today
is selling for $207 to 1927 per bushel.
But that will only give the farmers
an income of approximately $40 per
acre and against this he must count
the cost OF fighting fax wilt which is
familiar to the farmers of this state,
If not to the theorists.
There is now tariff of % cents
per bushel on fax seed. During the
year ending June 80, 1910, there was
imported into this country from Can
ada 1,410.2ss bushels of fax, Now, ae-
cepting the theory of the advocates of
reciprocity that the agreement will
lower the cost of a food product the
amount Of the tariff, it is evident that
it will have the same effect on other
articles This would mean lowering of
the price of fax rs cents bushel. IL
the tariff is removed, and make a de-
probation of $3.50 per acre on a ten
bushel crop, or $3.50 on a hundred
acres Of fax.
But the reciprocity advocates pass
the question over with the sneer that
it don't amount to anything anyhow,
for fax 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
fax crop the first year after the sod
is turned and even when the blowing
is done in the spring. He cannot
raise any other crop under those con-
ditions with success. The fax 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 home and
independence possible to thousands
who live in this state, and it is what
will make the same things possible to
thousands 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 believe It
is for their own good. Such advo-
Gates have little introspection or little
appreciation of the intelligence of the
farmer.
But let us see who is benefited by
this free flax deal. One concern.
trust, practically utilizes all the fiax
seed. The oil as well as the by-pro-
ducts are largely, If not entirely. used
by farmers. Under present conditions
this trust must buy the American
farmers crop or the Canadian farm
er must take less for his crop. If
the Canadian crop Is kept out by d
tariff the American farmer would be
able to sell his crop at a price regu-
lated by our own supply and demand.
If the tariff is removed entirely as it
is under the reciprocity agreement. the
trust will have twice the market to
draw on that 1t had before and the
price will go down not the present
tariff rate, but that which viii come
when a 50,O0O,000 hushel supply As