The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1922-05-18
Farmers Must Take Notice, Business
Men Must Wake Up

The newspapers Of the east are
hammering away on Senator McCum-
Der in an endeavor to lessen his in
fluence in Congress and with vague
hope that they may so undermine his
political standing in North Dakota and
throughout the country that they will
be able to eliminate him as the most
important element in the framing of
tariff legislation.
The plan of campaign of this east
ern propaganda is to create general
impression detrimental to the Senator
with the hope that it will result to his
disadvantage at the coming primaries.
If they can add to that opposition just
enough to throw the balance of power
against him they will have accomp-
lished the result they seek. Then
be their fight to capture the chair
manship of the Committee of Finance
for some one so we'll qualified for the
craftsmanship that he will return to
the Penrose policy of giving the bulk
of protection to manufacturing indus
tries and with only slight regard
for farming interests.
Like all propagandsts these inter-
ests that are fighting the Senator now
and then lose their cunning and show
their true purposes by talking too
much. The Ithica On. W News is
particularly vitriolic toward the North
Dakota senator. 1t points out the
danger of the Republican Party losing
the House of Representatives as it
states has been done on three occa-
sions by unwise tariff legislation. Then
the NEWS makes the alarming state
ment that the McCumber bill is so
bad that it has drawn condemnation
from the very friends of the protec-
tive policy. They reflect this de-
numciation in these words which
seem to settle the destiny of the SEN
ator once and for all:
"Under the most favorable circum-
stances then. tinkering with the Gus
toms schedules is dangerous. But
there has rarely, if ever, been such
wave of condemnation directed against
any tariff measure as that with which
the McCumber bill, just reported to
the Senate, has been assailed. And
the striking thing is that, the attacks
come, not from confirmed foes Of pro-
lection but from it's former friends.
"There is not a Republican news
paper in the city of New York that
does not condemn the Fordney-Mc-
Cumber measure. The Herald, the
Tribune, the Sun, the Globe, all are
unsparing in their criticism. In Bos-
ton the stalwart Transcript takes the
same view. No tariff bill has ever
had such bad press at the outset"
If the NEWS had stopped there the
hue and cry against Senator McCum-
Der might have reached the great
northwest and the farmers, especially
all Republicans, might have thought
it we'll to halt such policy Of suicide
especially as the denunciation was
coming from protected interests which
would be the very ones to endorse
protective tariff. They might have
succeeded in weakening the senator
in his stronghold by giving strength
to those who oppose him. Like bad
propagandists they didn't know when
to stop and they then''let the cat out
of the bag" by showing the animus of
this entire denunciation from eastern
newspapers.
"The very groups that have talked
protection in the past now rise in op-
position" the NEWS repeats and then
adds: "The shoe men are indignant
at the duty on hides. The wooden
goods men denounce the tariff on wool
as "idiocy." The steel producers, the
automobile dealers, the wholesale
grocers, all make known their distaste
for the measure. Only the agxicul-
ture bloc seems satisfied, and if there
is any virtue in protection, they have
a right to their satisfaction. For the
bill carries duties that, however much
thew mean are without a precedent in
the history of agriculture protection"
This states the case clearly. The
manufacturer of the east is not dis
satisfied with the bill because it does