The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1922-09-22
IS NEW TARIFF A COLD
BRICK OR COLD MINE
What May Happen If Farmers Determine
Get the Billion and Half 1t
Promises Them
BY Lansdon vicepredent of the Kansas division OF sHs
Farmers Education Co. operative Union OF America
(Reprned From The Nation, New York;


Is the McCunber- Fordncy Bill
gold brick or a gold mine for Am
lean farmers? This may be fol
ish question but there are q lot
fools as well as few wise men y
are interested in the answer. judi
by the obvious motives of the. q
who have framed this indefens
tariff and are using all the pow
of their party machinery to force
through Congress there is but
answer: 1t is. a deliberate, carefu
worked out, and wholly coll-blood.
conspiracy on the part of the a
protectionists to fool the farmers
to supporting a monstrous raid
the income of the producers
workmen of the republic. But ut
last the foolers may be fooled. w
is so plainly intended as o gold bri
may yet turn out to be regular q
mine for American farmers.
One of the most effective appel
made to rural voters during the. q
litical campaign of the Republit
party. in 1920 was the PROMISE tn
high tariff rates would be, impos
on agricultural imports so that 4
American farmer should be. :. frs
from ruinous competition with d
cheap labor of other countries. Ear
in the life of the new Administratf(
temporary or emergency agricl
tural tariff was passed by Congre
and approved by the President. TIL
law, already once renewed, has be-
in operation for more than yed
with the result that prices of neal
all farm staples are now very muI
lower, even when measured BY Z
fiuctuating dollar, than they were
the years Immediately preceding d
Great War.
That is an inauspicious begfnnfi
for the success Of the tariff ~ q pi
acea for farmers, but the Repub
cans in both Senate and House fouI
in it only an incentive to build
tariff walls still higher. The
called agricultural bloc has fore
the Senate to accept a duty of thf
ty cents busEel on wheat. or
agricultural products have reccij
equal or greater favors. Wd
which has the advantage of be
represented in the Senate by IA
great producers who are inauent
members Of that body, is to have
highest protective tariff that has
er been given any American intere
Not single commodity produced
American farms has been overlook
or sighted. Once it begins to fun
ton the results of the new tariff w
be truly magnificent for farmerss
on paper. 80
The Experts Figures
According to an alleged exp
connected with the Ways and -Afes
Committee of the House Of Repf
sentatives the new law will enri
American farmers by the very n
spectacle amount of about n -billioI
and half dollars a year. TO Ios|
a gift horse in the mouth before a.
cepting it and becoming respopsiI
for its oats may not be coed for
but in the light of their expericu
with agricultural protective tariffs d
other times the farmers of the Uni
ed States, even those who do D
live in Missouri, are scarcely to
blamed for demanding proofs. Va
naturally they want to know wht
that billion and a half is conf
from and just how much it is goid
to cost them to get it.
The tariff expert arrived at
hgures by very simple proce5'
simple in more than one awy. Tax
wheat for example. The annul
American production of that high,
useful cereal is around 500, ,OOO. ed
bushels. A tariff of thirty cents A
bushel, therefore, will put the i'd
sum of $24O,O0O,OOO a yesr in q
pockets of the American whS
growers. The same rule is SppliI
to other crops and to live stock a
the results so obtained foot up to d
one and one half billions of dcllat
with which agriculture is to be sn
riched annually by the magic procesi
es of the new Republican tariff, u
In a few years our farmers M
pay all their debts, there will be d
more tenancy and every farm hoo
will have a bath tub, an elect
light system, and fiyyer. But G.
fore We spend any of that money -
must check up on the expert. e
appears to have overlooked the fab
ly well-known fact that AmeficoI
wheat growers produce a good lsis4I
surplus each year over home lneed
and that our surplus must be so]'
on world markets at world bricsu
No law made by the Congress- Of q
United States, even when that bod
is dominated BY the superlative WI
dom and the mastery and nastchlSn
craftsmanship of the Republican pgE
ty-see any campaign docdment =
can add a single penny to the. pr
In..uI..Ial -, n..~( a ~ b 4.