ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 361 



commodities which are most needed by human beings. Why is that 

 shortage? Because the farmer has not kept up in the extent of his 

 productions with the increased population. And the tariff is criticized 

 because it is assumed that the duties make prices high, though on an 

 average through the list the present law makes a smaller levy than 

 former protective tariff laws. 



The political disturbance comes from the same source, primarily high 

 prices, which the ordinary man must needs lay to somebody and accord- 

 ingly chooses the politician. The responsibility of the farmer for the 

 balance against the increase in our exports is almost entirely in agricul- 

 tural products. 



The farmer then may be held responsible for the present situation 

 much as the officers of a corporation are for anything that goes wrong 

 with that corporation, though many of the causes of the mischief may 

 have been entirely beyond their control. * 



This much may be said, however, that the husbandman has not taken 

 as much out of the soil as he would have taken under more scientific 

 and conscientious methods of cultivation, and we have about reached the 

 limit in the extension of our areas. Nor, so far as this country is 

 concerned, is the outlook altogether satisfactory as to any cheapening of 

 farm products. The farmer is working land which has greatly increased 

 in value during the past ten or twenty years. He must get a pretty 

 higli price for his product in order to reimburse himself for his labor 

 and also pay interest on the capital invested in his acres. Unless he 

 sees a good price coming for wheat or corn, he will not plant his lands 

 to those grains. How, therefore we are to get out of this knotty situa- 

 tion with lower food prices without a considerable loss to the farmers 

 is a question. It may be that we are on the verge of a great liquida- 

 tion in farm property similar to those that are so often experienced in 

 the stock market when prices get too high. Thus far there is no evi- 

 dence of any such event. Prices of farm lands are still advancing, and 

 there is considerable speculation in them. The strain has become so 

 great in this country that many of our people are migrating to the 

 cheaper lands of Canada. One thing is becoming clearer and clearer, 

 and that is that our farm products will hereafter, and until a break does 

 come, cut a comparatively small figure in the export trade, and other 

 fields will furnish the bulk of the supplies to the people of Europe. 



Our attention has been called to a recent article in Colliers' Weekly 

 regarding the meat situation. It is worth while to note that the article 

 says that several years ago the packers were restrained from underselling 

 local dealers in some places, thereby increasing prices. The present com- 

 plaint it seems, from Colliers', is that the packers are not now selling 

 at the excessively low prices which at that time were complained about. 



It is interesting, also, to note that the article finds fault with the 

 report of Commissioner Garfield, of the Department of Commerce and 

 Labor, because it clearly showed that the packers were earning only a 

 small profit on their annual sales. It also strangely omits similar state- 

 ments of Secretary Wilson of the Department of Agriculture, who points 



