Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-05-01
The Tariff and Prices

Major Patton, of the Hoquiam
Washingtonion, made a visit to Skagit
county recently and met some Oat
kings of the La Conner flats, who were
evidently of a firm conviction that a
high protective tariff, that gave
producer high prices at the expense
of thousands of consumers, and re-
turned home with fancy that the
democratic tariff was about to set
those automobile farmers afOot again
The price of oats had gone down and
of course it was due to the tariff. The
pauper farmers of Canada are flood
ing this country with cheap oats, cries
the Skagit farmer, and the Major falls
for that line of talk readily.
Major Patton did not have to go
to Skagit county to discover that
kind of farmer The Herald finds
them in this county. 1t is but recent
ly one of them was attributing the
low cost of butter to the tariff, and
unthinking newspapers have given out
the impression that the importation of
New Zealand butter was the cause of
lower prices this year than last.
Neither the oat farmer or dairy
man appear to have sought the real
reason for the reduction-for which
by the way-hundreds Of thousands
are thankful If the oat raiser had
inquired as to the market change in
that grain he would easily have learn
ed that the law of supply and de-
mand governed The oat crop Of 1912
was very light the country over, SO
that at this time last spring the mar
ket was bare and prices scared. The
crop of last year was bumper and
prices dropped, and that it all there
is to 1t. Oats can be raised as cheap.
ly in Skagit county as in Alberta. and
the growers can place them at Cal
ifornia cereal mills at much less cost.
The Alberta farmer has but one line
of railroad, while the Skagit man has
advantage of a low cost water route
and less than half the distance.
The butter man likewise, had he in
Quired, would have discovered that
in 1913, for the first time in its his
tory this state produced as much but
ter as it consumed. Instead of i'm
porting hundreds of tons as formerly,
production met consumption. and 1t
will not be many years until the state
of Washington will be shipping i'm
mense quantities of dairy products
abroad.
The Herald's authority for saying
that no Canadian oats had been ship
ped to this state was Mr.. I. p. CALI.
son, of the Chehalis Produce com.
pany, with establishments at Aber
deem and Chehalis. and whose bust
ness in oats is second to none in this
section Of the state. He is obliged to
keep posted on the market conditions
of grains, and he asserts that inquiry
of the leading dealers in Seattle and
Portland will bear him out in the
statement that no Canadian oats had
been shipped into the state of Wash.
.ington this year.
The genial major seems to have
butted into a number of calamity
howlers on that trip to Skagit. He
found idle single mills-nothing very
unusual in the month of March-and
shingles from British Columbia be-
ing shipped into that county. The
Majors word is good, but we sub
nit it is a slam at Skagit county that
with it's splendid mills and heavy
timber the residents bring shingles
from British Columbia at time when
other single mills are operating. az
they are and have been on Grays
Harbor.
Last week, distinguished citizen
of Everett, in the county adjoining
the ruined Skagit, told an audience in
Seattle that the shingle mills in that
city were increasing their output, and
stated that there never was a time
when that city showed more bust
when that city showed more bust
ness activity, and there you are.
That old line Of talk will not dc
duty this year, Major The time is
mast never to return when you car
con> nee the American people tina
their prosperity depends upon a higf
tariff wall that creates trusts, multi
millionaires and tramps in one pro
cess. or that you can make mar
prosperous by adding to his indirec
taxes. Equality of opportunity and
square deal before the law is all tina