Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-04-21
Europe. millions of bushels Of which have
been sent to the United States:

been sent to the United States:
austria Hungary 1900. $50. 600 600 bushels
Russia ..................u.356 , 100000 bushels
Germany ,844, 000, 600 bushels
great Britain ............. A3, 0o0 oo0 bushels
Belgium III 900 900 bushels
The Netherlands .......... III 900, 600 bushels
| The production in the United States for
the same year was 100000 and in Cana
da S5,O00,OOo. The removal of the Is cents
| per bushel opened the United States to
the potato producing countries Of the
world. The cost per bushel for freight
from European shipping points to cities
on the American Atlantic seaboard is less
than the cost Of shipping potatoes from
Aroostook county to these same American
! ports. The importations of potatoes in
the months, October, November, Decem-
Der, 1912. and January, February and
March 1918. were $4,000 bushels. After
| the Underwood tariff became a law,
October g. 1913, the corresponding six
months of 1913 and 1914 there came to the
United States from foreign parts 3,54100O
bushels. and during the entire year the
| imports Of this one vegetable amounted
to about 10000 bushels per month.-this in
competition with our own vegetable. Our
State, particularly Aroostook. county,
suffered a tremendous loss from this COM
petition, and if the policy is to be con-
| tinued it will have a disastrous effect
! upon the most profitable agriculture of
| that section Of Maine.
In Aroostook county many starch fac
| tories have been operated, and with a
protective tariff of one and one-half cents
| per pound, this industry was profitable
| both to manufacturers and producers,
enabling them to use a by-product, or the
small potatoes, which are unmarketable
for any other purpose. The reduction of
the duty of 80 1-3 per cent. has so crippled
this industry that these factories have
| been forced either to be idle or to curtail
their output to great extent.
With no child labor laws in Russia to
prevent the work of children in the fields
with wages less than 20 per cent. of
what is paid in the United States, we
may well consider the competition We
shall have to meet from this country,
and others, when the men who are now
on the battlefields shall return to their
| homes.
might also speak of several other
affected by this free trade measure, but
conditions. These conditions were DELHI
erately established by the Underwood
tariff. They were not removed by the
war, nor set aside nor changed in any
way. but merely interrupted for the time
being.
Oriental Competition
In considering the effects of the Dem
|
posed upon our people. (of which
as yet but will get the full
force Of after the war;. it is very impor-
tant to bear in mind the competition our
farmers will have to meet from present
and future conditions in the Asiatic coun-
tries. OF all the great peoples whose sur
plus output our farmers must meet in
| their home markets. these Asiatic peoples
have probably the lowest standard of liv-
ing. A very interesting development in
Asia, which means something to our
| farmers and millers was mentioned in the
/ New York Journal of Commerce, of April
q, 1914. which said:
1.-The awakening Of China has gotten
as far as the ur-milling industry. ac-
L: Neville, of Antung. South Manchuria.
He reports that in his district imports
of foreign flour (Which is American): de
100000 pounds in 1872 loss of 6,0OO,0{N
pounds, while Chinese flour shows an ati-
vance from 100000 pounds to 24,oc0,oo0
pounds, in the same period. an increase
of 100000 pounds, or slightly more than
the decrease in American -four
| Prof. f. H. King, who was chief of the
division of soil management in the United
| States Department of Agriculture, in his
| valuable work on the farming methods
of the Oriental people, refers frequently
to their great hardihood and powers of
| endurance in all kinds of labor. He
speaks of their marvellous heritage of
economy. industry and thrift bred of the
| stress of centuries. These people are in
fact the survivors of the fittest" in an
| intense struggle for existence that has
been going on for 40 centuries. He also
gives definite information concerning the
| extremely low wages paid in Asia, and
the facts he states should be taken to
| heart by our farmers, and all our work.
ers. Farm wages. Prof. King says, range
| from 10 to II cents for 10 hour day.
| In his observations on farming in the
vicinity of kenshan, Prof. King says
This farmer was paying his laborers
u cents, gold. for a 10-hour day; and in
| describing the work on the farm of a
| Chinese widow in the Chekiang province.
her field help, during the summer. con-
sisted of laborers, and she kept four
cows for the blowing, and pumping of
water for irrigation. The wages Of men
were at the rate of s24, Mexican, for five
summer months, together with their
meals. The cash outlay for the seven
men was thus $14.45, our currency, per
month, or a trifle more than 50 per month.
each" And again referring to Chinese
and Japanese farmers, Prof King goes
on to say: almost every day we were
instructed, surprised and amazed at the
conditions and practices which confronted
us whichever way we turned-instructed
in the ways and extent to which these
nations for centuries have been and are
conserving and utilizing their natural re-
sources; surprised at the magnitude Of
! the returns they are getting from their
| fields: and amazed at the amount of eff
cient human labor cheerfully given for a
daily wage of five cents and their foods,
or for 10 cents, U. S. currency, without
! food"
| Since it will be seen that these Asiatic
people are constantly encroaching upon