Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-07-18

Today 1913
si-,oi, stsa, ........3o .25
Round steak ..............z4 10
pit ross+ ....22 16
snrine lamb ...22 .I6
Veal cbons .....35 rs
Lamb stew is the best bet for the
housewife. Cuts were selling at II
cents a pound today, about the same
last year"
Instead of vainly attempting to offset
this contradiction Of the assertions
and promises of 1912. and showing
where prices of necessities Of life
have been actually reduced by the
tariff, Democracy is talking in loud
voice about good crop prospects This
is hoped to serve double purpose
TO soothe the consumer with the
vision of bumper crops and promised
lower prices, and 10 keep the minds OF
producers on the problem of getting
each his share of a market overloaded
by home production and imports. and
keep him from looking into what the
tariff law is really doing to him.
Neither of these plans will work.
The voters of this country are much
better informed on affairs now than
they were a score of years ago under
another Wilson tariff. Tariff problems
are no longer sealed book to them.
They understand that they cannot
have their pie and eat 1t too.
If this country buys farm produce
abroad American farmers do not get
the pay for it-but the American
farmers market IS that much restrict
ed. The government is raising reve-
nue. out of his normal prices.
The farmer and the laborer are
raging dearly for the products of for
eign farms and factories. And con-
sun,ers do not get any of the benefits
because the middlemen regulate the
seesaW.
What does the farmer think Of an
importation of over a hundred thou
sand bushels of corn, when during the
same period of time under the old
tariff law the importation was less
than two thousand? How does he
relish the thought of twelve million
bushels of oats raised on foreign land
brought to the United States in one
month, realizing that for the same
month of last year the amount brought
here was seventeen thousand bushels?
Yet those are the figures for the month
of April as collected by the depart
nnent over which Secretary Redfeld
presides.
How much of a real friend to the
American farmer is an Administration
which makes a tariff law under which
there is an increase In the importation
Of cattle of forty per cent. and in
horses Of two hundred and fifty per
cent? And as for sheep, the percent
agS of increase is up in the thousands.
How much Of comfort is there to the
wool grower in the fact that the i'm
portation of raw wool under the new
law is nearly three times as large in
number of pounds as under the pre-
vious law. and is over three times as
large in the value of the product?
Where is the encouragement to the
maker Of dairy products in this coun-
try? The increased importation of but
ter is over two hundred per cent, and
the increase in cheese over fifty per
cent. Nearly two hundred thousand
bushels of beans were imported in
April, and only sixty-five thousand
during April of 1913. There is an in
creased importation of fifty per cent. in
hay. Farm animals Of the various
kinds are now brought here at the rate
OF two million a month, instead of less
than half that number during the same
period of last year.
With bumper crops in this country
and importations more than doubled
market is not a pleasing one. 1t
ought to promise we'll for city con-
sumers land in Democratic theory it
does) but consumers are doomed to
disappointment. The markets are no
longer regulated by supply and de-
mand but by iron bound agreements
between those who fix prices. Free
trade in farm produce is already hav-
ing its necessary-not it's natural--re-
suit.
Big crops will bring relief to neither
farmer nor consumer. Theory is
doubly discounted. Such dreamers as
Wilson expected to make victims of
only one class of people--the pro-
Queer; he has victimized both producer
and consumer.