The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-02-27

ALleS III our SOIL, from getting a RoOt
price, a living profit for our work fol
the few bushels that we would produce
while trying for perhaps fifty years, al
in Denmark, to reinstate wheat grow
ing ingredients on our tax-burdenec
lands.
Free Trade-Problem of Consumption
In your great collection Of facts as
presented by you to the Publicity club
OF Minneapolis, you gave the present
financial situation OF condition of the
people of England and Ireland. take
the following from The Minneapolis
Journal:
Now, / want TO ask you as com
merical men, is it possible, bearing in
mind the improved machinery. modern
looms, modern improved machinery OF
all kinds, is 1t possible for that 90 per
cent, made up Of IS per cent of the
commercial. professional and leisure
class and 80 per cent on the farms, is
1t possible, do what they will, to con-
sumo what that so per cent make and
| transport?
| Il tell you 1t is a question that has
to be settled, and it has to be settled
by statesmen and not by demagogues
If 1t is settled by demagogues we will
| find ourselves in the condition that
| other nations are in, notably Great
| Britain. Men of Great Britain walk
the streets, pressing their faces to the
windows Of show rooms filed with
goods manufactured in Germany. The
government Of England today has to
J raise an old-age pension. 1t was sup
| posed that it would cost somewhere
! from $S,000,000 to 100000 to give
a very small pension-I think five
| shillings a week-to workmen 20 years
old and over AS a matter of fact it
cost $27,000,OOO the first year, and they
had to raise, or attempt to raise. the
tax, and that is what made the recent
great riot. The house of lords, large
owners of property, felt they could not
afford to pay the increased tax and
proposed to raise the income tax from
3 to 71s per cent, and 1t almost created
political revolution in Great Britain,
| and it is not over vet.
I'm Ireland they have fought the
! home land for To- these many years,
but when they found the old-age PEN
sion would have to be paid by them
| selves they were quite willing, a great
many of them, and think the major
ity were quite willing, to remain under
| the government of England and they
would take theirs in money"
| Did it occur to you at the time you
were collecting these very interesting
and more especially at this time-facts
that Great Britain is a free trade
country; that all this idleness, poverty,
distress, and bankruptcy were the re-
suits of a system of government, the
| like of which President Taft, Mr.. Car
negie, and yourself are trying to place
as an entering wedge into this country
of contented, happy, and prosperous
| people-free trade?
| can reach no other conclusion from
the facts as you state them. We may
| be to a limited extent. indirectly in
part, the cause of some Of that distress
in some of the foreign countries be-
cause we make their inhabitants pay to
us in the way Of duties, together with
our receipts from internal revenue
from whiskey, beer, tobacco, and other
! luXuries, most of which are injurious
to the human family, and which luxur-
| les are not necessary to maintain the
prosperity Of our country, enough
money. about $1,000, 100000, to run our
government. OF course. we charge
part of this to our citizens in the way
Of increased price of the goods.
This free trade agreement is the en-
tering wedge, to be driven to our hearts
by the democratic party until it splits
and bankrupts our country.
If we do not raise more than a bill
lion of dollars each and every year to
pay the expenses of our general gov
eminent by the tariff and internal rev.
enue systems now in existence, then
pray tell me how we will obtain that
amount of money?
You have given us the condition of
the people in Canada just across the
line, whom you call our brothers and
kinsfolks. You have also given us the
condition of the people across the big
water-who in the time of King George
the Third were also our brothers and
kinsfolks"-who are now under the
down trodden, Overburdened system
Of direct taxation-free trade.
I believe that your statement of
facts as to the condition of the people
of England is a convincing argument
why the Taft democratic free trade
agreement should fail
l will call your attention to what
happened-you ought to remember it
to our financial and business affairs
and the condition of a large part of
our people when the free trade demo-
cratic party in power in Clevelands
time undertook to pass the so-caIled
free-trade Wilson bill. AS soon as the
business classes-of which you are a
member-in our country learned that
we had a democratic, free trade presi-
dent, a democratic house of representa-
tives, and senate so evenly divided
that two calamity howlers," middle
Of the road populistic votes-those OF
Allen and Kyle-would, if cast with the
free traders, pass the Wilson bill
money was withdrawn from circula-
ton, tied up, hidden, factories closed
and public improvements of all kinds
not absolutely ecessary-stopped.
However, those two good and true
democratic patriots. the late Senator
German, of Maryland, and the more
recently lamented Senator Smith OF
New Jersey-the one whom the other
free trade Wilson recently strangled
for time-by voting the protectionists
in the senate saved our country from
continued and permanent distress and
embarrassment.
I am told that even you. because OF
the situation and your surroundings
hesitated. Men were idle, with empty
dinner pals, all over the country. Both
public and private soup houses had t.
be opened everywhere. The idle were
| fed unon the products OF the farm W.