Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1910 — TREAT CANADA FAIRLY [ARTICLE]

TREAT CANADA FAIRLY

Her Trade Interests Are Identical With Ours SOME MISLEADING STATISTICS American Duties on Foodstuffs, and Other Necessities Are Much Higher Than Canadian —A Comparison of Interest to Consumers. The Canadian tariff dispute is settled. There should have been no dispute. The American people and the Canadian people are the closest of neighbors. They belong to the same race. They speak the same language. They inherit mainly the same traditions, and they have mainly the same tastes and customs and the same interests in every way. Yet these two peoples recently seemed likely to enter into a spiteful tariff war with each other. Why? Because this country has passed a tariff law which says that if any country discriminates against American goods 25 per cent duty in addition to the very high duties we already impose shall be levied against the goods coming from that country. Canada Is said to discriminate because she gives France better terms than she gives this country, , but that is because France has given her an equivalent and we have not What did we offer Canada? We offered her the Payne-Aldrich tariff, designated with a fine stroke Of irony “the minimum tariff,” and we told her that if she did not cease her “discrimination” we would clap another 25 per cent on the top of those duties. We already place much heavier duties on Canadian goods than Canada places on the same classes of goods coming from this country. The New York Herald recently published the following dt comparative duties. It will be seen that Canada has great reason to complain, and so has the American consumer:

United CanStates. ada. Barley, a bushel.. 30c, 15 c. Barley meal, a bushel (34 1b5.)...........,........ 45c. 45c. per 100 lbs. Corn, a bushel 15c. Free to •• 7%c. Cornmeal,, per 100 1b5..... 40c. 25c. per bbl. Oats, a bushel..... Isc. 10c. Oatmeal and rolled oats, per 1b...................... Ic. 3.5 c. Wheat, a bushel..... 25c. 12c. Butter, a p0und........... 6c. 4c. Cheese, a pound 6c. Sc. Beans, a bushel 45c. 25c. Eggs, a dozen., sc. 3c. Hay, a ton $4 $2 Hops, a pound 16c. 7c. Peas, seed, a bushel 40c. 15C. Apples, a bushel 25c. 40c. per bbl. Potatoes, a bushel 25c. 20c. 3acon and hams, a pound. 4c. 2c. Wpol, unwashed, a pound. 12c. Free Aluminium, mfgrs. of «> p. o. 25 to 30 p. c. Brass, mfgrs. of.. 45 p. c. 30 p. c. Maple sugar and sirup, a pound ...................... 4c. 20 p, c. Tobacco, pipes, average... 58 p. c. 35 p. c. Lumber, sawed, 1,000 ft..... $1.25 .Free Shingles. 1,000 ft $1.25 Free Clapboard, 1,000 ft $1.25 FreeLaths, 1,000.. 20c. Free * ~Vfoo\ blankets, fr0m...... 66 to 122 35 p. c. p. c. Wool carpets, from 50 to 72 35 p. c. M.P-C. Wool cloths, fr0m.......... 95 to 137 35 p. c. p. c. Wool dress goods, average ...... 101 p. c. 35 p. c. Wool flannels, average.... 108 p. a 35 p. c. Wool knit fabrics, average 84 p. C. 35 p c. Wool clothing, fr0m........ 67 to 92 35 p. c. p. c. Wool, mfgrs. of, n. o. p., from 78 to 148 35 p. c. p. c.

This list* shows too plainly who is the discriminator. If these goods—all of them so sotely needed by the poor, deluded American consumer—were as free to enter this country as they are to enter the Dominion It would make the cost of living easier for most of us. Misleading statistics have been put in circulation from Washington tending to show that the Canadians are in the wrong in the tariff controversy. Figures have been given out which apparently prove that Canada’s average duty is higher than ours; that America’s average ad Valorem rate on dutiable and free imports from Canada for the fiscal year 1909 was only 11.2 per cent and on dutiable imports only 19.4 per cent, whereas Canada’s average duty on free and dutiable imports from us was 12.5 per cent and on dutiable imports alone 24.9 per cent This is true as far as it goes, but it suppresses the important fact that our Imports from Canada consist mainly of natural products on which our tariff is l<sjW, whereas Canada’s imports from us are chiefly manufactured articles on which her duties are relatively high. The fair comparison is between the same classes of articles, not between Canada’s raw products and our manufacturee. If such a fair comparison be made it will be found that our tariff is a great deal, higher than is that of Canada. - The Journal of Commerce in the course of an able exposure of this artful fallacy says, “There is no justice in comparing this average on textiles and manufactures of metal with the average on our imports of lumber, agricultural products and minerals, and that is what this official comparison used as an argument amounts to.” '