The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1913-04-25
TARIFF REDUCTION ON BEANS
viii Be Injurious to Growers aNG
Shippers-Opinion Of Fred Welck.


Shippers-Opinion Of Fred Welch.
Probably no man in Michigan il bet
ter posted regarding the bean crop than
Fred Welch of this city, president of
the Michigan Bean Jobpers' Associ-
alton, an association with $50 members
representing an investment of many
hundreds of thousands Of dollars liz
elevators and equipment. The proposed
cut in the tariff on beans from As &c
% cents oushel proposed in tho
Underwood bill-and almost certain 6e
be adopted-has aroused & flood OF
protest from the job5ers and is be.
ginning to stir the agricultural inter
ests to a realization of what m&y
possibly happen if this profitable caok
crop is to be very greatly reduced liz
its selling value or is TO be wiped out
entirely by the flood of beans whiGk
will come from other countries. Aske5
if he was interested in the bill, Presi-
dent Welch said: Il should say We are
interested! Cutting off that tariff viii
probably result in financial ruin to
some of us, We are doing al we cay
to keep the tariff at the present figure.
Michigan raises 20 per cent of the
annual bean crop of the United States.
We market about 100000 bushels
here, and the American crop is 10.
0o0, 600 TO 1L000,000 bushels. We pay
the farmers of Michigan from $40 ,O9e-
600 to $4,000, 600 every year, and the
Michigan bean sets the pace from tbs
Rocky mountains to the Atlantic
o,;ean. The famous baked beans "
Boston, or good many of them, grow
on Michigan soil, since the output Of
beans in the eastern states is small.
Our best distributing points are
New Orleans, Key West. Havana, tie
larger cities of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Pennsylvania, New York and Bcs.
ton. Canada raises a few beans bat
not enough to hurt us seriously. Bat
many are grown in the countries bor-
dering the Mediterranean sea and ik
France. 1t is hard to get statistics,
but from Europe and Asia, perhaps
900 600 bushels are imported yearly,
This amount does not disturb ont
market. We are not worrying about
those producers
But if the tariff is taken off, we
will be engaged in fight TO the death
with japan. Two years ago, according
to the latest figures available, they ex.
ported 10000 600 bushels of besus. Most
of this enormous shipment, which is
greater than the entire output Or The
United States, was raised in Man
churia, where the soil seems 20 Be idesi.
and labor is cheap.
IF we had only the tariff alone to
worry about, it wouldn't be so bad,
but simultaneously with The tariffs
being reduced to % cents, the Panama
canal will be opened The Japs can
load their ships at their home ports
with their own beans, grown by cheap
labor, and put them into New Orleans,
Havana and other ports more cheaply
than we can compete with them.
venture to say they can do it for $I.2s
a bnshel, or even less.
Now, the Michigan farmer can raiss
beans at profit under proper condj.
tions at, say dollar a bushel. But
conditions are not always ideal. 4
couple of years ago, rainy weather
ruined the entire crop, and only the az
surance that they would recover their
losses the next season kept the majority
of bean growers in the business.
'See what will occur if the tariff is
taken off. There will only be margin
of about 25 cents a bushel between the
Jap and our own crop. A bad year will
wipe out the margin of profit for sew
eral years to come Bad seasons have
been bobbing mp frequently in the been.
business as long as l can remember.
The farmers will decide; in the unfav.
orable years, when they have TO sell for
81 .25 bushel, the crop that cos.s thesa
all of that to grow, that there il moth.
ing in it, They are better off than we
are. at that; they can turn their attea.
tion to other crops, while we have ele-
vators located only with an eye to the
bean trade. and equipped with beau
handling and cleaning machinery. So
we feel we are fighting for ouriiddus-
trial lives"