The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-07-22
COAST FARMER
OUT in THE COLD
CLAIM WHEAT TARIFF BENEFITS
ONLY DAKOTA, MINNESOTA
AND MONTANA GROWERS

The following article on the wheat
tariff, written by Carl J. Smith, a
newspaper correspondent at Wash
ington, is of interest to western farm
ers:
The tariff on wheat fixed at 80 cents
bushel, is intended to benefit only
the farmers of the "spring wheat sec
ton" of the Dakotas, Minnesota and
Eastern Montana 1t will have no eff
feet elsewhere, according to Senator
| IMcCumber of North Dakota, the chair
man of the finance committee. This
explanation is due to the farmers of
the rest of the country, who may have
supposed that the wheat tariff VIII
have some relation to the future price
of their wheat Mr.. McCumber was
quite specific in his statement, say
ing: "I claim no particular advant-
age by reason of the tariff for the
wheat of the West Coast, of the soft
er wheat of the Southern and Middle
states, only as the buoyancy of the
price of the spring wheat tends TO
steady and uphold by reflection the
value of the wheat in the interior sec
ton"
Under ordinary conditions he said
the tariff rate has given the farmer
of this state the benefit Of a little less
than one-half the tariff. III other
words during the period when the tar
iff was % cents bushel on the Am
erica side of the line. In years OF
short crops, he said, the benefit it is
greater ard measures to about the full
rate of the tariff.
Mr.. McCumber denied that Liverpool
fixes the price, especially not OF our
northern spring wheat."It is nonsense,
he asserted to claim that the home
market, which takes nineteenth of the
wheat, does not have more control
over the price than the market where
the other one-tenth is sold. According
to tariff commission reports, however.
about one-third the American produc
tion is exported.
The North Dakota senator put into
the record set of tables Of wheat
prices in North Dakota towns, COM
pared with towns with a few miles
across the line in Canada. A differ
ence of 10 to 25 cents in the American
market, he said, makes it unnecessary
for him to argue in that section that
the tariff on wheat benefits the farm
er.
Senators Simmons and Underwood,
the Democratic leaders, quickly re-
torted that McCumber was showing
that the purpose of the high rates of
the new tariff is just what they have
contended, to raise prices in America
for the producer COR manufacturer,
and not to reward labor or equalize
in cost of production.
"It is a proposition to tax the whole
people Of the country" said Simmons
not to project against foreign COM
petition, but to increase the price OF
a product raised by small fraction
of the people. That is not tariff tax
alton. That is subsidy, pure and
simple and unadulterated. The dis
cussion brings out the fact that the
duties which we are now levying are
for the benefit of only a
few producers of wheat. The senator
from North Dakota said it would not
benefit the wheat producers east Of
the Missippi river and on the Paciflc
coast"
Sentor Underwood says his calcu
Iations have led MIN to conclude that
the tariff on wheat will add $9C, 600 900 |
to $100, 100000 to the cost of the
American flour bill, and on the basis
Of imports the government will re-
ceive only $5,000,000 in taxes for its
treasury.
McCumber said the tariff will not
be taken into consideration in the
price to the consumer, because 10
cent raise in wheat would be 1-32 of |
4 cent on a loaf Of bread