The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1911-05-11
{ CONCLUDED FROM PAGE ONE

potatoes grow much better outside, ana a
thousand other things, wherefore he asks that
the tax for entrance be raised to so cents per
bushel and it is DONE Now, the people in the
city will pay, not so cents, not Is cents, but
81 per bushel for all the potatoes brought in
and for all the potatoes the gardener raises,
and, Therefore, Mr.. Gardener defends and de
mands that this law be decreed sacred and
that nobody touch it, unless it be to amend it
by revision upward This, Mr.. Chairman, is
''the tariff"
Of course it is readily seen that if there
were so many gardeners that they raised more
potatoes than could be eaten inside the city
and they had to 90 outside the gates them
selves to sell their surplus, they could not
have had their prices raised by this charge
at the gate unless, knowing about the gate
tax, all the gardeners inside the city combined
together; and having tried the outside mar
ket and found the price there to be so cents,
they might come back into the city, put all
their potatoes together, and make the people
pay so cents plus the gate tax per bushel for
all they consume and send all their surplus
out and sell that at so cents. That, also, IS
not so bad and that IS what our Steel Trust
has done. That is the Trust stage of prOtec
ton. which is growing every year heavier
burden and curse on our people, We growers
of wheat corn. and cotton are very much out
in the cold. We never have been and never
will be able to form such trust. | very
much fear that if we were situated so wO
could ride on the backs of our fellow citizens
we would be inclined to do Just as [ have
supposed the potato grower to have done IN
the walled city. On this point the speech of
the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Fordney)
is Illuminating. He says that when his mills
have cut all the lumber they can sell to home
consumers at the price they are able or willing
to sell them at being protected against any
outside competition by the tariff wall, then
it is right that thew begin to sell their surplus
at lower prices, not to home people, but to
foreign markets, without profit or even at
loss, and keep their home price high enough
to make a good profit on their entire output
in that way giving to the outsider the benefit
of the great supply and cheap product and
making the home consumer bear the double
burden. Under this kind of protection the
donkey is a fitting party smybol Of Democ-
racy, because the mass of the people bear the
burden of it. We not only bear the burden of
higher prices to us, but the burden of enough
higher prices to enable the protected interests
to 90 out into the outside market and by
adding to the supply there still further lower
the prices to the outsider. Our higher prices
here help decrease home consumption and
help to make a surplus in the home market
and that surplus is used to help supply. the
foreign demand and lower the foreign price
What does the lumber mill man care who
pays him the money, so he can cut all his
lumber and make the average price a very
profitable one? That is what the gentleman
from Michigan said the Lumber Trust did;
in effect he said they made the home people
pay the profit on all the lumber they sold,
both at home and abroad.
Suppose, Mr.. Chairman, it were proposed
to make a similar distinction and discrimina-