The Republican journal., 1913-05-22
THE TARIFF AND THE FARMER.

| How does the Underwood tariff bill
affect the farmers, particularly the
farmers of our own State? How has
the Democratic party shown it's friend
ship for them and what have the farmers
to expect?
Let US scan the agricultural schedule
carefully and see what the Underwood
bill will do.
One of Names great products is corn,
sweet corn, which is packed in Maine in
large quantities and for which the
farmers receive good price. Under
the Dingley and the PayneAldrich bill
, the duty on corn was Is cents a bushel.
The Underwood bill admits corn free of
duty. Immediately the Canadian farm
I er, just across the line, can go on rails
] ing sweet corn, ship it at little expense
, to our corn packing plants within few
miles of the boundary line and undersell
the American farmer right in his own
door yard. That's one thing the Under
wood bill will do for the farmers of
Maine.
Take wheat, another product which is
raised in large quantities in some parts
of Maine. The Dingley and Pavne-
cents a bushel The Underwood bill
the same time flour is admitted free of
duty, so that the American -four manu-
| facturer is Disseminated against in
favor of the Canadian manufacturer.
! This will not, it is claimed, materially
affect the American manufacturer but it
will tend to lower the prices of wheat
paid to the farmers.
Beans, another product of Maine
| farms, are reduced from As cents a
bushel to Is cents a bushel. Potatoes
are cut from Is cents bushel to admit
lance free of duty. This will make every
| Canadian farmer, whose land is as well
adapted to potato growing as is the land
of the farmers on cur side of the line, a
producer of potatoes and he can, with
cheaper labor, on farm which costs
! him less, ship his potatoes into our mar
| kets and lower the price paid to the
Maine farmer by at least 25 cents a
| bushel. This means ruin for Maine po-
| tato-growers, no matter how bountiful
may be their crops or how we'll favored
| they may be.
Hay is another Maine product which
has been cut by the Underwood tariff
] from 81 a ton to So a ton. Maine farm
ers, paying high for labor, which is much
cheaper and easier to obtain in Canada,
will materially feel this cut on hay.
Apples are cut from rs cents a bushel
to 10 cents bushel The apple growers
of Oxford county know what this means.
Northwestern Canada is producing mil
| lions of bushels of apples which will now
find a market in this country and will re-
duce the price paid to our farmers by at
ers face loss like this with any degree
of satisfaction?
Wool is cut from II cents to Sc cents a
pound to duty free. How many sheep do
you suppose there will be in Maine, COM
peting against the world, under the con-
ditions imposed by the Underwood bill?
Poultry is cut from cents per pound
to cent per pound. Eggs from cents
dozen to 2 cents dozen. Don't you
think this will stimulate che poultry bust
ness in Maine great deal? Dairy pro-
ducts are all admitted free under the
Underwood bill, and what is true of these
articles is also true of almost every agri-
cultural product.
This wholesale reduction, it is claimed,
will reduce the cost of living to the dwell
lers in the cities and to the laborers in the
manufacturing communities. But what
happens to the manufacturing inuds-
tries under the new bill? Every one OF
them here in New England is hit and hit
hard. The reduction in wages will sure
ly follow in nearly all of them when this
bill passes. What benefit will it be te
the laborers in our factories to have free
agricultural products if they haven't the
money available to take advantage OF
the cheaper prices which will prevail?
Maine farmers will feel the effects OF
the Underwood bill more than the farm.
ers of any other section. Their prosper
ity is threatened at once by it and they
will owe whatever comes to the Demo.
cratic party. Portland Press.