Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1912-08-22


powerful combined interests of this
country and that they are under
bonds to represent the people of the
United States and not the special
parties in it.
Tariff measures are not measures
for the merchant merely, and the
manufacturer. The farmer pays Just
as big proportion of the tariff du-
ties as anybody else. Indeed, some-
times when we are challenged to say
who the consumer is as contrasred
with the producer, so far as the tar
IN is concerned, in attempting to an
swer The Farmer" Because he does
not produce any of the things tina. get
any material benefit from the tariff,
and he consumes all of the things
which are taxed under the tariff sys-
tenn.
Nov, there is another matter You
know We are digging a tremendous
ditch across the Isthmus of Panama.
1t is predicted by the engineers in
charge of that colossal enterprise
that we shall be able to open it to
the ships of the world by the year
1915 What interest have you in
opening it to the ships of the world?
We don't own the ships of the world
By a very ingenious process, which
would not keep you standing in the
hot sun long enough to outline, the
Legislation of the United States has
destroyed the merchant marine of the
United States. The chief road by
which your crops travel to the Orient
1c 1erT. M
don't go around by the Pacific. Most
of your maps do not show you the
short road to the Orient, because they
are spread out fiat. If you will get
globe and draw a circle around the
globe you will see that your short
road it through the Suez Canal, not
across the Pacific, and that the West
ern farmer therefore has to ship his
grain across the continent in order to
reach the ships that are to take that
road. And when his crops reach the
port, do they find American ships
waiting for them? Not at all. In
most years not single ship carrying
the American flag goes through that
canal carrying freight. Some ships
carry the American flag through that
canal, but they are mostly private
yachts. A friend of mine who has
just Travelled around the world told
me that he did not see the American
flag once between New York and
Hong Kong going by way of the can
al, until he reached the Island of Ce-
Ion, and then he saw the flag of Mr..
James Gorden-Bennett's yacht. And
If the ship owners of other nations
carry. your grain and cargoes, they
are going to carry them by routes
and to markets which suit them, not
the routes and the markets which are
chosen by you. One of the great OBJ
jects in cutting that great ditch across
the Isthmus of Panama is to allow
farmers who are near the Atlantic to
ship to the Pacific coast by way of
the Atlantic ports, to allow all the
farmers ON what may standing here
call this half of the continent to find
their outlet at the ports of the Gulf
or the ports of the Atlantic seaboard,
and then to have coastwise steamers
carry their products down around
through the canal and up the Pacific
coast, or down the coast of South
America
Now, at present there are no ships
to do that And one of the bills
pending, just passed by Congress-
passed believe yesterday by the Sen
ate as it had passed the House-pro-
yides for free tolls for American
ships through that canal and prohib-
its any ship from passing through
that canal which is owned by any
American railway company. You see
the object of that, don't you? We
don't want the railroads to compete
with themselves; because we under
stand that kind of competition. We
want the water carriage to compete
with the land carriage, SO as to he
perfectly sure that you are going to
get better rates around by the canal
than you would across the continent
The farmers of this country are in
my judgment just as much concern
ed in the policy of the United States
with regard to that canal as any
other class of the citizens in the
United States. Probably they are
more concerned than any other one
class of citizens And what I am
most DESTROYS to see is the farmers
of the United States coming forward
as partners in the great national
undertakings and take wide nat
ional, nay, international, view OF
these great matters, feeling all the
pulses of the world that beat in the
great arteries of commerce and are
part of the pulse of their own life
and prosperity. Everything that is
done in the interest of cheap trans
portation is done directly for the far
mer as well as for other men. So
that you ought not to grudge the
millions poured out for the deepen
ing and opening of old and new
waterways.
Then there is another thing you
ought to be deeply interested i'm
that is the program of the great
party belong to. That is the Par
cells Post. This is the only civilized
country in the world whose govern
ment does not see to it that every
man has an express agency at his
own door. 1t is the only govern