Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-07-03
FREE TRADE IN CATTLE.

New Orleans, June ~. OLA
thousand head of cattle from
Guatemala will pass through New
Orleans, beginning early In July,
and will be rushed to the packing
houses In East st. Louis over the
Illinois Central, touching ground
here only 1T the Stuyvesant docks,
where they will be transferred
from ships to cars.
Under the government reauia-
lions for the prevention OF the IN.
PRODUCTION OF the cattle tick and
other animal diseases, 1t hitherto
has been impossible to bring in
Latin-American or other cattle
for shipment to tick-free territory.
Thousands have entered through
Galveston, but these were admit
ted because they were for ship
ment through to Fort Worth,
which is also in quarantine terri
tory, as are q number OF the
ranches where the same cattle
were left to be fed and fattened.
There has been long fight to OBJ
tain similar privilege through New
Orleans, the coming Of packing
houses to this city being one of the
future possibilities held out, but up
TO very recently permission was
denied. and congress withheld re-
lief. It is reported that the bu-
reau OF animal industry finally has
consented to q practical test, and
the coming shipment is the result.
The above dispatch came over thu
wires on Tuesday. 1t 1s eloquent II
telling the result of free trade upon thu
cattle industry and upon the Unitee
States treasury. The arrival of these
six thousand beef animals from the
land to the south OF thi:
country not only means lower prices
paid to American producers - with
out any material reduction in price t.
the consumer but it also mean:
that they do not represent one cent K
be added to the duties collected by The
and are therefore double
drain upon tax payers.
Under the present tariff law, these
cattle come In duty free. Under thu
tariff law which the
present Underwood law superseded
The tariff on beef animals was the spe
CHIC amount Of 1915 for all animal:
under $14 in value and an ad valoren
duty Of 271z per cent on animals ovel
ia In value. Admitting that thest
from Guatemala will be WORT
less than American corn fed cattle, l
Il nevertheless safe to assume tina;
'Sey will stand in the neighborhood o.
nifty dollars each. II they are not sell
Ing for that amount, it is hardly prob
able that they would be received al
the American markets at all. THAI
means that under the protective tar
ff recently In force, the owners Of the
cattle would have had to pay a little
over q. fourth of their value into the
customs ofices of the government be
,ore the cattle would have been per
nitted to land. On a basis of $50 pei
animal, each one would have brought
I13.75 into the Golfers of the govern
mont. On the six thousand animals ir
he shipment from Guatemala, the gov
would have received $50, 800
n other words free trade has cost the
over $4,000 on this one
Shipment alone. This explains why the
tariff policy has reduced the
balance in the U. S. treasury from the
hundred millions left by the Taft ad
to paltry thirteen mil
ions at present and this despite the
income tax introduced by this admins
.ration and the increased corporation
tax.
Free trade is costing this country
enormous sums. It has not reduced he
price to the consumer. Why, then