The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-07-14
Senator McCumber Directs
Oratory Against Tariff
Bill
MEASURE KICKS
FARMER INTO GUTTER

Changed Conditions of Supply and
Demand Were About to Yield
Awakening VIII Come i'll 1914
WASHINGTON, July IA. Senator
McCumber of North Dakota opened the
Republican assault on the Democratic
tariff revision bill in the Senate today,
defending the farmers of the country
against the free listing or great reduc-
ton in tariff rates on agricultural pro
ducts, and charging the Democratic
party with deliberately kicking the
American farmer into the gutter"
''In this year, 1913, said Senator
McCumber. addressing the Democrats,
/" you are about to commit a greater
crime against the American farmer
than has ever been perpetuated by any
political party against any class of peo-
pie during any period of recorded his
tory.
with violent hands you are about to
strip him of every advantage which
the changed conditions of home sup
ply and demand were about to yield
to him. You have declared that he is
an outcast in the land which he has
made. the only one of all the classes
of American people who is not entitled
to any consideration at your hands.
You have insulted his sense of fairness,
slapped him in the face and kicked
him into the gutter.
The tariff bill, Senator McCulnber
declared, seemed to have been ICON
.ceived in animosity against every
American industry that needed protec-
ton with the American farmer as the
Especial object of his choler and
hate
els it because of his past political
utilization that YOU are heaping upon
him the vengeance for all your pre-
vious defeats2 Or do you consider
yourself to be the instrument through
which providence is to work it's pun
ishment because in the last political
campaign he forgot the faith of his
fathers and went chasing after
strange god, with cloven hoofs ana
branching antlers? If he is to be pun
ished for his heresv, are YOU the prop
er person to inhict the punishment
You are the beneficiary Of the farm
er S infdelty to his own party las
ga h ~>And-for you nov to he his eye
cutioner for the offense of being mis-
led by you strikes me as being one of
the most cold blooded propositions ]
have ever heard of. =
1t was the Democrats, Senator Ne
Cumber declared, who told the farmer
that he had been wronged by Mr..
Taft because the former president
sought to trade off his protection for
reciprocal tariff reductions by Canada =
and it was the Democrats who tried
to convince the farmer that the Re
publican party was not to be trusted
and that they, instead, should be en-
trusted with his interests The reciproc-
ity proposition, the senator argued, had
one virtue, in that it proposed TO get
something for surrendering nothing
while the Democrats proposed to trade
away the farmer s interest in every
thing 80 for absolutely nothing.
1.-The reciprocity proposition he
continued, g subjected the farmer to
the free competition of Canada only
You subject him to the competition of
the whole world-all Of Canada. Aus
traIa, Venezuela. Argentine, Cuba. the
Philippines and every other country
on the face of the earth that may
want to dump its products into mar
ket that belongs by right to the Ameri-
can farmer.
Senator McGumber asserted that the
Democrats admitted the tariff bib
Z
that he received too much for his pro-
ducts and must be compelled to sell
them cheaper, and charged that the
Democrats ''know that your claim that
lyou are going to benefit the consumer
rs false and demagogic in the extreme. =
The senator submitted statistics. seek
ing to show that the tariff did not af-
feet the price of farm products to the
consumer and, again addressing the
Democrats, said:
g Your ears are closed to every an
peal for justice for the tiler of the
soil. You are reaching point whore
your income is unable to keep pace with
your eXtravagances, and you are ask
ing the farmer to make good the de-
felt by reducing the price of his prod
ucts. 1t never occurs to YOU that the
proper place to begin economy is on
the Injuries, the unnecessaries of life
y on declared to them that the Ameri-
can people are paying $l,500,000 900 a
year for meat, and you say that is too
much. He answers, They are also pay
ing 2,O00,000,000 year for liquors.
Cut your liquor bill half and you viii
save enough to buy all your meat. Yon
declare they are paying $435, 100000 4
year for -four. He replies, They the
paying $500, 100000 for tobacco. Cut
your tobacco bill half and your flour
is ffee.3 You declare they are paving
$50 100000 year for potatoes. He
replies, They are paying $500,000,0o0
for theaters and amusements. Cut vonr
amusemcnts half and your potatoes are
free. You declare they are paving
$500, 100000 year for butter and eggs,
He replies, They are spending $500
100000 year for confectionery. His
replies are unansWerable. They are so
many monuments reading in clear black
letters into your eyes an Indictment of
your own criminal extravagances and
high hving.'
The North Dakota senator asserted
that prices would be lower after the
tariff bill becomes 1aw, but that i
would be because of the inability Of