News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1911-04-19
RECIPROCITY
A LamoIIIe County Farmer Gives His
Opinion OF This Important Subject
WoLcoTT, VT, Apr. 10, 1911.

l
would say to the Farmers ofVermont
Write to Mr.. Page" Mr.. Page in his
open letter says, IF | were to vote &C,
cording to the letters | have received,
would vote against it," think that Mr.
Pages letter will cause good many peo'
pie to write to Mr.. Page that have been
misled into thinking that reciprocity will
help them, and if the farmers don't wake
up and write too, they will lose Mr..
| Pages vote.
| can readily see why merchants and
middlemen in Massachusetts are sup.
porting this, but cannot see why any
one in Vermont should want it. All the
smaller villages are directly, and the
larger ones indirectly, dependent on the
farmers for their life. Anything that cuts
down the buying capacity of the farmer
will soon cripple the village. The man
that works in the shop and the store will
soon lose his job; what does it matter TO
that man then if flour is only five dollars
q barrel?
| am inclined to think with Uncle Joe
| Cannon that these people have got to
learn through their stomachs what they
cannot learn through their heads. They
have forgotten the lesson they learned in
| 1896, when hired Elmer Wade for
seventy-hve cents a day in springs work
and Morrisvlle was full OF good men beg
ging for the same job
At recent meeting of the National
Wool Growers, Joe Cannon said that ac-
cording to the Constitution of the United
States all tarifflegislation must originate
in the House; the President can, by and
with the consent of the Senate, make
treaties. This cross between tariff bill
and treaty was originated no one knows
Just where, it was passed by the House
like whirlwind and the Senate was told
to pass it or get spanked.
We have heard Uncle Joe Cannon ma
ligned until we have come to picture him
with horns back of his ears and bristles
turned toward the top of his head, but
in five years you will all wish he was
back in the chair turning the crank again.
Now let us look at Canada: AS it is in
this argument we willleave out the Great
Northwest, for | have never been there
and it will not compete with New Eng.
land. AS you go from Swanton you soon
strike the St. Lawrence valley; you can
travel for a day on a fast train through
a land that is level as far as the eve can
reach you will come to Ottawa; from
there you can travel on fast trains for
two or three days through nearly the
same kind of country. Lyman Camp tells
me that there is no better farming coun
try in our Middle West than the St. Law
renee valley and Western Ontario. For
markets they have Valleyheld, Ottawa,
Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, and spec
ial trade agreement with England by
which they exchange products at very low
freight rates. Any Canadian farmer or
breeder that goes to England and buys
pure bred animal that is registered will
have all his expenses paid from the time
he steps on the ship at Liverpool to his
nearest express office in Canada.
Any Canadian farmer or breeder that
wins premiums at any fair in the United
States for every dollar he wins will re.
ceive a dollar from the Canadian govern
ment. Farms in this part OF Canada are
better titled, farm buildings and fences
are better and the farmers are weather. |
than in Vermont You will say we have
nothing to fear from this; they are bet !
ter off than we are, but there is lots of
virgin soil there yet; they buy things
cheaper than we do; the hired help ques-
ton is not as complicated as it is here.
We can no more compete with this coun-
try than we could with our own Great |
West twenty five years ago.
But the country directly north of us is
what New England is more interested in.
AS you 60 from Newport toward Sher
brook you go through broken country.
The farms and farmers do not look as
thrifty as they do in Vermont, the people
that get on and off the cars are mixed
lOt-English, American, French, Negro
and Indian. From Sherbrook you can go
up into the French country. There you
might travel tor a day and not find a
person who can speak English. Their
standard of living is so far below ours
that there is no comparison. They have
a tne farming country; they are thrifty
the women and children work out doors
bare footed ; the average woman can
plant and dig as many potatoes as a
man; they raise potatoes without tertil-
yer. They can raise potatoes at twenty
tents bushel and make money; give
them the American market and they will
thribble their output in a short time. Be
sides these people there is big territory
with farms and farmers about like Yer
mont. When anyone tells you that all
he surplus from that country will not
eed Boston a week you tell him he is a
lar
This is not an honest measure to reduce
he cost of living; every thing the farmer
sells is put on the free list f; everything he
buys is taxed. Cattle, sheep and hogs /
,ome over free. If the same cattle were
killed the other side of the line the meat
would be heavily taxed will that help
he dear Consumer or the great Meat
Packer!
Wheat comes in free, flour is taxed
Will that go into the pockets of the dear ,
consumer or the owner of the great flour
Mills?
1T this passes, it will strike blow a.
he farmers of the East whose equal has
lever been struck at any class of Ameri-
ans by any American President or any
american congress since the days of An. Z
rev Jackson and the veto of the Bank I
Bill; it is class legislation of the rankest ]
ind. What we need to-day is another I
)aniel Webster to denounce this measure .
S the great Daniel in his day did the veto {
It the Bank Bill and the man that We :
oed it.
l have always been a Republican. |
ever could see any good in a Democrat.
think their policy of government is all
wrong but / see nothing lett for the
lrmers to do but to vote the Democrat q
, ticket at our next election. In 1893 Y
he Democrats scheme of tariff did not f