684 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the American people produce and consume was a mighty good thing for 

 the public to be afflicted with, and I even worked myself up to believe 

 that the higher the tax the greater the prosperity that would surely 

 come to the American people, for I had even worried myself into a con- 

 dition where I thought that taxes and prosperity go hand in hand. 



I must confess during late years I have grown a little skeptical about 

 this combination of high taxes and prosperity business, for during the 

 last forty-five years of my life I have lived under a high protective tariff, 

 in many instances a prohibitive tax. I have seen a large part of the 

 material wealth of this country drift into hands of a very few men, 

 whose interests have been protected under these protective laws of this 

 country; and, professing a love and veneration for my country, I have 

 had to modify my views as to just who a high protective tariff, as we had 

 under the past tariff law, benefits. It is commencing to dawn upon me 

 that if the flow of wealth in this country continued to flow on during the 

 next forty years as it has during the past forty years under a protective 

 tariff, into the pockets of these few men and the interests they repre- 

 sent, that before another forty years had expired these few men and 

 their interests would own nearly all of the material wealth of this 

 country, and if this was true, and I hope to prove it largely before I am 

 done, that possibly a patriotic view of our duties as American citizens 

 would prompt us as producers and breeders of cattle that we meet free 

 trade in cattle and grains, as all patriotic Americans do in a crisis in our 

 country's history and sacrifice a little for the general good and for all 

 humanity in general. 



But as breeders and producers of cattle we are and have been con- 

 stantly reminded that we have shared in the general prosperity that 

 has been abroad throughout the grain belt as never before under this 

 protective tariff, and why should we care if these few men and their in- 

 terests have accumulated vast estates. But, breeders, we cannot escape 

 responsibility so easily as it should interest every patriot who loves his 

 country and who can rise above the sordid life of just living for the 

 purpose of making and squeezing out of our surroundings in life all 

 that we possibly can, and then dying, as we all must in a few years, 

 leaving a large property to be spent by some one who will come after 

 us for wealth that we do not spend before we die, is only good for what 

 it will purchase, and the ones who have the spending of our fortunes 

 after we are gone will be interested in seeing what it will buy quickly. 

 There is a vast army of the "idle rich" making its appearance in Ameri- 

 can life. 



We all know there is only so much property and money in the world, 

 and if we allow those few men and their interests to secure such a 

 large part of the material wealth of the country as they have acquired 

 under a high tariff, that it only deprives some other poor fellow perhaps 

 more deserving than we or they from getting his just share, and I hope 

 to show you before I am through that the building of these large for- 

 tunes and estates that has been going on in this country during the 

 past forty years under a protective tariff, is not only a detriment to our 

 country, but a positive menace to your and my welfare, for it has taken 



