The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1657 
Free Trade and the Farmer 
We have come to the time when home 
consumption of farm products has practi¬ 
cally overtaken production. 
We are making large importations of farm 
products, grown on the cheap land and by 
the very cheao labor of foreign countries. 
During the past year we imported many 
millions of bushels of corn from the Argen¬ 
tine. This corn was offered at from ten to 
forty cents per bushel less than the price 
prevailing for our own corn, and of course, 
the price of our corn dropped rapidly. This 
Argentine corn competition will become 
more severe right along. In good years 
Argentina produces hundreds of millions of 
bushels of corn for export. It is grown on 
cheap land and by the cheapest of cheap 
farm labor. The freight rates from the Ar¬ 
gentine to our eastern coast are lower than 
the freight rates from the central west to 
our eastern coast. We cannot compete with 
the Argentine corn farmer and maintain our 
American standard of living on the farm. 
We must be protected 
Our live stock industry is confronted with the 
same peril. Argentina and other South American 
countries {ire large meat producers. Our big pack¬ 
ing companies have built packing houses down 
there. A government officer under the present 
Democratic administration indicated that the gov¬ 
ernment is fixing tip refrigerator ships to bring in 
chilled beef from the Argentine and thus “reduce 
the cost of living.” And this at a time when the 
beef producers of the United States have been 
losing as much as $75 per head on the steers they 
have fattened! 
Our importations of vegetable oils have in¬ 
creased alarmingly. During the past year we im¬ 
ported cocoanut oil, copra, and soy bean oil in an 
amount equal to more than one-third of our an¬ 
nual lard production. These oils are used as sub¬ 
stitutes for lard and butter. What will happen to 
our hog industry and our dairy industry if this 
sort of thing is permitted to go on? 
During the past year we imported more than 
twice the normal amount of wool. You know 
" hat happened to the price. In July, 1920, wool 
was 43 per cent lower in price than in July, 1919, 
while clothing was 12.4 per cent higher. Because 
of this foreign competition, wool is selling now— 
when it can be sold at all—for far less than the 
cost of production, and our wool growers have 
been obliged to form a pool and borrow money at 
high interest rates to hold the wool in the hope 
that they may be able to avoid ruin. 
The people lose millions 
Heavy importations of frozen New Zealand 
mutton and of foreign meats and hides during the 
past six months have caused American meat pro¬ 
ducers the loss of millions of dollars. 
The fruit industry of California is suffering 
severely. It is almost ruined. 
Our great dairy industry is threatened. 
What are we going to do ? 
The Democratic party says NOTHING. The 
Democratic national platform reaffirms its tradi¬ 
tional policy of a tariff for revenue only. That 
means that the American market will continue 
wide open to the farmers of foreign countries who 
live on cheap land, under pioneer conditions, who 
employ the cheapest of labor, and who, since 
shipping has been resumed, are in position to 
compete with our farmers. 
The Democratic attitude 
The Democrats don’t care what happens to the 
farmers of the United States. They never have 
cared. They think it is the duty of the American 
farmer to produce to the limit and not “bother 
his head about the cost of production,” as a prom¬ 
inent Democrat official said during the war. 
The American farmer was urged to produce 
grains and meats to the limit. He was assured 
that he would get a fair price for everything he 
could grow. But after all their promises to the 
farmers the Democrats have systematically en¬ 
couraged these foreign importations of grains and 
meats and vegetable oils and wool for the express 
purpose of beating down prices of our home¬ 
grown products. 
After all their promises the Democrats have 
conducted repeated price drives to beat down 
prices of American farm products. And mean¬ 
while the prices of foodstuffs to the consumer 
were permitted to advance unchecked. 
And now the Democrats propose to continue 
their betrayal of the American farmer by throw¬ 
ing our home market open to the farmers of for¬ 
eign countries who have much cheaper land and 
cheaper labor and a far lower standard of living. 
The Republican way 
The Republicans have a different answer for 
this problem. They promised in their national 
platform: “Revision of the tariff as necessary for 
the preservation of a home market for American 
labor, AGRICULTURE, and industries.” 
And Warren G. Harding, the Republican candi¬ 
date for President, in his great speech on agricul¬ 
ture, said: 
“The farmer must be protected from unfair 
competition, from those countries where agricul¬ 
ture is still being exploited and where the stand¬ 
ards of living on the farm are lower than here. 
We have asked for higher American standards. 
Let us maintain them. * * * So long as America 
can produce the food we need, I am in favor of 
buying from America first.” 
A business proposition 
We have come to the most critical period in the 
history of American agriculture. A mistake now 
cannot be repaired. You cannot afford to make 
that mistake. You cannot afford it on your own 
account. You cannot afford it for the sake of 
those fine boys and girls who soon must take your 
places on the farm. 
A vote for the Republican ticket this year is a 
vote in favor of a sound, constructive national 
agricultural policy, that will protect our farmers 
against unfair foreign competition, that will in¬ 
sure them, as Warren G. Harding said recently: 
“A fair return on invested capital, a fair wage for 
the labor which goes into the crops, and enough 
in addition to enable the farmer to maintain the 
fertility of his soil and insure against natural 
hazards. * * * Prices which will insure to the 
farmer and his family both financial rewards and 
educational, social and religious living conditions 
fairly comparable to those offered by the cities.” 
It doesn’t matter whether you have been a 
Democrat or a Republican in times past. Every 
man and woman interested in the farm will vote 
the Republican ticket this year. 
Republican National Committee 
