Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-08-06
Facts to Renember.

Facts to Remember.
Maine farmers who have not had the
privilege of reading the recent address
of Senator Smoot on the tariff will find
it worth their while to devote ten min
utes to the following excerpt on the
Inconsistencies of the Democratic BILL
and then pass it along to their neigh
bols. 1t certainly can harm no man to
read this:
Wheat. flour, corn and corn meal
meat. potatoes, swine, cattle, sheep
and various other farm products go on
the free list, including beet sugar. Then
of the manufactured products, wire,
type, steel ingots, etc, steel rails, print
ing paper, nails, spikes, horse shoes,
leather. boots and shoes, pig iron hoop
or band iron for baling cotton, certain
kinds of leather gloves, bituminous
coal, cash registers, linotype and type
setting machines, sewing machines,
typewriters, shoe machinery, sand blast
and slug machines, agricultural ma
chinery, all sugar cane machinery, bag
girg for cotton, and various other man
ufactured products, the raw materials
of which are dutiable in most cases, go
on the free list. But rice, peanuts and
bananas, grown in the South, are put
on the duitable list. They are used by
poor people generally In Porto Rico
rice is consumed to the extent of 100
pounds per capita. In China and Japan
the consumption is nearly three times
that per capita. 1t can be used instead
of corn and wheat. But corn, wheat,
| potatoes and other such products go Oh
| the free list while rice is made dutia-
| BILE. If Protection were being extended
| to agricultural industries in general
| there would be ample reason for impos-
| rg duty on rice. But when other pro-
| ducts are put on the free list with the
| pretense of reducing the cost of living
| there Is not n shadow of reason why
rice, peanuts and bananas should not
| be treated in the same way.
In the bill passed last year machine
tools. printing presses. etc, were put
on the free list. In this bill they are
made dutiable at Is per cent. OF course
| II was a monstrous piece of work to put
machine tools or printing presses on
the free list, but it is even worse
crime to put beet sugar, boots and
shoes. sewing machines, typewriters,
wire, etc., on the free list now. The
exports of boots and shoes from Great
Britain have increased enormously i'll
recent years. and the number of per-
sons employed in that industry in that
country has more than doubled in 20
years. There are 10000 women employ
cd in the boot and shoe industry III
| England and over u per cent. of them
| earn less than $40 a week for full
| time of about 54 hours week. "A man
| working full time earns from $6.22 to
| 81 20. and it is with labor paid sucn
| wages that the 215,92 persons employ
| ed in that industry in this country are
| to compete hereafter on f'ree-Trade
| basis. There are nearly 10000 persons
| producing wire. over 1000 producing
| typewriters, over 10000 sewing ma
| chimes, 81 900 paper. $1,000 leather 6o,ooo
| agricultural implements, and those ana
| other manufactured articles go on the
/ free list But rice is to be Protected,
| with only a comparatively few thous-
i and employed in the industry. In rice
| cleaning there were only LII employed
In 1909, and that was a less number
| than were employed five years earlier.
| But rice is a Southern product, as are
| peanuts, and has Protective DUTY,
| though wheat, potatoes, ana other
| Northern products go on the Tree hst
| to say nothing of the great saerifce IN
| manufacturing industries. In the same
| way the House put wool on the Tree
| list and then made the hair of the An
CORA goat, Texas product, dutiable.
| There are many thousand persons en-
| gagged in producing wool, who are
| paid the highest agricultural wages,
| and only comparatively few persons
| ged in the Angora goat industry
| Both products should be dutiable. But
| making wool free and goat hair dutl-
able was preposterous. The Senate
/ Committee comedies that fact by put
ting both on the free list. In the same
way it has changed the ridiculous
House provision. making wheat dutia-
bic, while flour, bran, etc, were on the
free list, by putting wheat on the Tree
list, and also by putting catties ano
live stock on the free list along WIFI
| meats, hides, etc. There is nothing
gained in attempting to fool the farm
, ers, or any other workers or producers
I