Norwich bulletin., 1921-01-07


 The other day happened to turn an old empty sugar barrel hallway round 50. as to expost A big yeilow-paper; la bei which had been pasted on it's side when I bought it. some ten or twelve years ago. This label, about four in ches wide end two feet long, was pasted d.agcnally axfoss the staves.. like the twist of an auger, and bore in staring letters: You could buy this sugar for two cents pound less than it has cost you. but foC the protective tariff" This had been signed at one end by some re- lining company, but that end was torn co badly I couldn't certainly make out fhe letters N.'
 The same sort of appeal was m4de on almost ali the sugar sold in- barrels at that time, I remember. Indeed. some retail merchants were furnished with free paper bags for putting up the stuff, if they would use such with similar i'm print. IL was all part of the game which certain big interests were play ing to secure, if possible. cheaper raw materials. Those of us who can reanean- ber so far baesI have no difficTfy in Tetahing .sc9Ees of similar arg1nsnysA addressed from all possible sources to the voters in an attempt to get them to overturn the existing tariff.
 Now, while I. usually buy ny sugar at wholesale and in quantity, 1t happens that this was the only granulated sugar l ever bought by the barrel. Most of my purchases have been in. hundred pound cloth bags. Hence l. reTnerrber the price. where I have forgotten other prices of less unusual purchases. It was $4.30 9 hundred that paid for the white, fine, granulated sugar in that barrel. Ac- cording to the refiners' campaign la boiling. 1t was ohly the tariff on raw sugar which prevented me from buying 1t at s2-30 Q hundred pounds.
 Wen, I, for one. never believed thas label Nor any other of the equally rRendacious campaign slogans of the free traders. But, as Mir. Lincoln once re- marked, You can fool some of the pee- ple all the time" and this sort of thing. kept up for years by a rich, cunning and unscrupuious propaganda, finally resulted in fooling enough of the voters to bring about the election of a fI@e-trade con grees and free-trade administration.
 After eight years of which. sugar is wholesaling in the large city nearest me for S9 and $9.50 hundred. This seems to the younger generation an almost rldicutously low price. after the expert ence we've had with twenty-five and 'thir- ty cent sugar.
 t isn't It's still aboI1.inably high, a. EOuI1areu BFln the times. when Q fOfo- Der tariff, was making, the poor people pay s4,so a hundred for it, .-A
 But how about those wonderful prophets from the refneries who were promising it to us at $2.30 a hundred. if we'd only lei them. remove or reduce the tariff?
 They got the congress and the pres :dsnt they wanted. They tinkered the :2rif to suit their own wills. having coupiete power to make it just what they pleased .s.-s.,.. : s..ssss s- : ,ss,..- tss.
 And. next thing we knew, sugar; .vass Ssiss si-s eight. ten, twenty cents a pound l. was 'rationed" out to us in half pound lots We were besought to uss honey at thirty cents, and rnaple-sugal at event more as substitutes. We coult not buy enough to put up can of blue berries without getting Q special govern Hent permit, and swearing we'd return the tablespoonful which might be lef over from canning Then if went Np u thirty cents, and We farmers began ts plant Eugar-beets in land not suited ant under climatic conditions not friendly t them in order to supply ourselves witl homemade beet syrup, etc, etc.
 Of course, the war was responsib1 for some of these high prices. Disn genenous and knavish profiteerng was responsible for much more. Bu. the wa did not come on till the prophets of Se3 sugar had had five years to bring thei cheap swestening to our tables The, didn't do 1t They are not going to l, 1t Probably they never expeHed or ir tended to do #.
 But, as one result of the war whicl they bungled and the graft which the. facilitated and the tariff which the, emasoulated. the farmers of the country at least those of the east, are being sub te0ed to 2 sweating process, right now such as hasn't been heard of before sine the Israelites in Egypt were forced t make bricks without straw.
 A neiEhbor told me. yesterday. that h had fifty barrels of potatoes in his eel lar which he couldn't sell for ssnolgh t pay the cost of hauling them to market He had about the saine nunnb.r of'barrel Of apples in October. He sold twen.. ot these. and can't even give the other away. He has about 500 pounds of woo which he has sent to storage, becaus he can't sell 1t at any price For year he has raised early lambs and sold then at fairly renuneratiye ratas. Now, Ii can't get an offer, even, for lambs, whetE, CT early or late. or for mu- i:7.,, Hfhel This neignbor depends mainly up3h nj potatoes, his apples, and n:s- sheep }fo an income. Yet he can't sei! any of: tn three for enough to pay the! fsed-bilI Of his sheep. i .
 Another neigflbor who, last nnontl, Eold fat sheep at sixteen cents a p6uii1t live weight, has just got four cents. pound for fancy lot, shipped to Ney Yor1 city. That did not pay flor tn grain required to fatten them. ,a
 Another. nGighbor,, who is trying to SC his wool because he must get. none from somewhere to pay his taxes, report that tie haSit yet been able to 3SEftr an offer of over eleven cents ,ae pontt It was seventy cents a pound a ,II:ti over a year ago.
 Two others tell me they ere being oi fcred eight cents a pound for dresye nr-a- elicf1 as hrnr elnt t1zentvaffItr ckri