The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-26
SENATOR M'CUMBER BLAMES FARMERS Dakota Senator Attacks the
 Reciprocity Bill FARMER WILL SUFFER Free Access of Canadian Cereal Prod ucts Would Demoralize Markets.
 Will Not Admit It Would
 Cheaper Living
FARMER WILL SUFFER

| Washington, February 25-Responsibil- | ity for the conditions with which they are now confronted was charged in part
 to the farmers themselves by Senator Me Cumber of North Dakota today in a speech in the Senate against the Mccall:
 Jill, which puts into form for enactment into law the provisions of the Canadian
 reciprocity agreement.
 Holding that the ratification of the agreement would spell disaster for the agricultural interests the Senator said that were urged for their rates of duty at the time of the passage of Payne
 Aldrich bill and their having given their votes in the ensuing election to the op- ponents of those members of Congress who had voted with the leaders in the two houses, had been the undoing of the farmers. He declared that when cru
 sade against the whole tariff system was
 launched in the press that natural con-
 servatism lost her balance and everything in the tariff bill was condemned"
 That we needed money" he continued.
 ito run the government was lost sight of,
 and a wave of free tradism that would have destroyed every vestige of protec- tion and left the government without revenue swept over the country
 Mr. McCumber referred to the sectional ism that developed in the tariff situation and the desire of one part of the coun- try to have it's own products protected while those of another part should be
 made to compete with the free goods brought in from abroad.
 Under these conditions he said, linen cause they allowed protection on fabrcs
 and thereby increased the cost of liv-
 ing The men of the east were de-
 stroyed because they allowed protection
 on food products and thereby increased
 the cost of living. Out of this turmoil
 new political creed was born, and the
 hero of each locality was he who cried. Protection on everything that we pro-
 duce and free trade on everything the rest of the country produces The end to which all this madness pointed said
 MT. McCumber, was plaint to him. The farmer had been poisoned by the virus
 with which the political atmosphere had
 been impregnated. and he, in too many
 instances. like all the others, turned against those who had labored for his
 benefit and either destroyed them or pun
 ished them with greatly diminished ma
 jorities.'
 "It was rough, no matter what he may have done to protect the interests
 of his own state, for a senator or rep resentative to have been caught several times voting the same way as the chair
 man of the committee on finance had voted. That meant the opposition of those who had yielded to the clamor.' The President, said MT. McCumber.
 should not be censured for his advocacy of the reciprocity agreement The farm CTS had shown by their votes last fall that they had not wanted to return the
 representatives who had defended their interests in the tariff legislation, and that
 meant the farmers did not care whether they were protected or not.
 Retributive punishment, however, Mir. McCumber said, was no part of his faith. He did not believe in retaliation upon the farmers by the enactment of the Mccall bill when theirs had been "the