The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-07-25

Whatever else is to be said of the
Fordney tariff on hides the claim
that 1t is proposed in behalf of the
American farmer is barefaced hum
bug. Neither the small farm. where
grazing live stock Is an incident, nor
the great ranch, where il is the whole
industrial operation, raises cattle to
sell the hides All these cattle are
bred, raised and shipped to be sold
for beef 1a4.-sp as
/ In the nearby village market the
butcher, or in the distant live stock
centre the packer buys the animal
on the hoof as meat product only
and the hide goes with the steer. 1t
becomes by product not for the
cattle raiser, little or big, but for the
slaughter pen or packing house.
! Two thirds OF all the American
hides that 80 to the tannery come
from the slaughter pens of the pack
ing concerns. The remaining one
third, even if all divided among the
hundreds of thousands Of farmers
that Kill their cattle in'very small
individual quantities for their own
meat supply would form an entirely
negligible per capita item so far as
concerns the farmer himself But
he doesn't and couldn't get any no.
ticeable fraction of the hide business.
in the other one third He wouldn't
and couldn't afford to bother with the
little he did get
Furthermore, only bali the pnmber
of hides, in round numbers. required
10 meet the American leather de
.mand can be produced in this eoun.
try. This means that, even If the
American farmers could get and did
get their full share of the hide tariff
aloot ont of the puhlic-7and OF course
they never would--it would hbe only
one-sixth FOR all the thousands of
farmers put together of what the
few great hide operators would get
for their superb swag. 4nui
.ri The most conservative estimate of
what this duty on hides would cost
the American public in added shoe
and leather costs Is 100000 600 a
year Out of this the United States
/. Government probably would get
S2,000,000 a ye,ni4n castoms revenue :.
IL possibly might,get .S2,5O0.0Q0. II
the farmers, as mass, got every
penny of their iull share Of one.
sixth of the hide tariff raid on the
American pubic's pocket hook, and
as matter of fact let it @ repeated.
they would get virtually nothing. il
would amount to about $4,000. 600
some 10000 600 farmers as whole, or
an average OF some one dollar and
sixty cents apiece And every farmer
would pay an added price of many
times that amount on the first set of
harness he brought, not 10 mention
the shoes for his family, The few
great hide operators would get the
colossal annual booty OF eightyodd
millions of hard dollars ,
Rather than be b cd for that hun.
drcd million dollars of the hide tariff
graft the American people could far
better afford to submit to an out.
right head tax of S5.000,000 to 80
directly into the United States Treas
Jury and of 100000 to go directly
, into the pockets of the farmers. Then
the Treasury would be twice as we'll
off as 1t could possibly be from the
tariff on hides. The participating
farmers would be three times as well
, off as they could possibly be from
the tariff on hides il they all got the
full share they never would get, And
the American public would be $45
5000 year to the good-as COM
pared with the cost to il of the
monstrous tariff on hides,
But, in any event, the thing to dc
with this unshirted fraud of a duty
on hides "for the bepeht of the
farmer" is to nail 1t in its tracks as
a butcher in the slaughter pen would
fell steer with u poleaxe, New York
llicrold.