Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1916-10-08
COTTON GROWERS
Make AN APPEAL
FOR PROTECTION
Memorial Issued to Congress
by President of Associa-
ton of State Farmers
Union Presidents.

" HUI 1ICSluCuIo.
Fort Worth, Tex, Oct. In a me-
mortal to congress issued today entitled
The American Farmer and His Gov
eminent" H. N. Pope, president of the
Association d State Farmers Union
Presidents, favors protection on all ag-
ricultural products, declares that no
country can thrive half protected and
half free, insists that there is no such
thing as a hyphenated tariff and asks
that cotton be protected by 12-cent
minimum loan from the government.
The memorial, which goes into an
exhaustive analysis of the subject, says
in part: 1.-The southern cotton farmer,
in demanding that congress empower
the federal reserve board to fix and
protect a 12-cent per pound minim UNI
loan price on cotton, advances no new
doctrine in government, for it has been
the policy of this nation ever since we
have had a nation to protect home in
dustries. Cotton is our only agricul-
tural product that cannot be helped
by a protective tariff and must, there
fore, seek other means of protection.
The cotton producer is the only class
of farmers who has always been COM
PEELED to sell what he produced on
free market and buy what he consumed
on a protected market and as con-
sequence the cotton fields of the south
have more tenants, more poverty and
more suffering than any other agri-
cultural area on the western hemis-
phere. This condition should chal-
lenge, but not BATTLE, American states
manship.
SYSTEM is WRONG.
mo matter what ones views may be
on the government policy of protec-
ton of free trade, all will agree that
no country can reach its highest de-
gree of prosperity half protected and
half free. This country should assist
all industries or none. No productive
industry can thrive selling in a free
market and buying in a protected one.
We have no desire to bring all agricul-
tural and manufactured products to the
level of cotton, we ask that cotton be
lifted to the level of other Industries.
1.-The three great agencies which now
substitute the American producer and
manufacturer are the tariff, the sea
and the war But cotton has had no
benefits from the tariff, and distance
which is a powerful factor in price,
making. has been a handicap to the
cotton producer for he has had to cross
the ocean to reach the consumer The
war which brought unbounded pros
pority to all other lines of industry
paralyzed the cotton farmer.
since many of the leaders of politi-
cal thought in this nation have de-
clared for Il tariff commission for the
aNowed purpose of taking tariff out
of politics, the farmers may enter upon
a non partisan discussion, free from
partisan prejudices and disengaged
from the political fortunes Of any
party or any candidates. No other
line of approach could be permitted
or tolerated by the farmers union. 1t
matters not whether a tariff is levied
for protection or revenue. 1t offers to
industry the same assistance. There
is no such thing as a hyphenated
tariff. policy of universal protec-
ton is in the interest of the American
farmer for he sells more than he buys.
SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED.
protecting the factory without pro-
tecting the pillow Is an objectionable
discrimination and should not be toler-
ated by the farmers of the nation.
Neither should any one agricultural
product receive protection unless all
. agricultural products receive protec-
ton. There should be a protective
tariff on corn, v heat, rice, wool and all
other agricultural products but cotton
cannot be helped by tariff and there
fore requires a different form of pro-
lection.
Cotton is the only agricultural prod
uct of which this nation has a world
l-Ie
fury, we have clothed the world and
nothing can transpire to take this task
from us for at least another half CEN
fury. The lord made the south a cot
ton country and he made cotton an
exclusive southern product. No legis-
lation can give universal help to the
south unless it helps the cotton pro-
ducer.
1--WE produce two-thirds of the
worlds cotton supply. The government
by protecting a 12-cent minimum loan
on cotton can enable the farmers to fix
a price which foreign countries must
pay for cotton. The government would
never be called upon to advance any
money on cotton under this play for the
market price would always stand much
above the loan minimum figures.
HELPS OTHER PRODUCTS.
1.-THE government could not pursue
this course on any other agriculture
product for we do not control world
production. There is no occasion to
render that character of assistance for
a protective tariff will help all other
products. We scarcely do more In nor
NAL times than feed ourselves. We
export nominal amount of wheat but
product only 20 per cent of the world S
wheat supply.
When we increase the price of cot
ton. we levy tribute upon the foreign
consumers which is the greatest at
ttnment in statecraft. Cotton has out
stripped all other American industries
in it's grower, and 10 the only farm
product which has outgroWn a pro-