Chapter XIII 

 THE McNARY-HAUGEN MOVEMENT 



STILL another phase of agrarian unrest that was typical of the western 

 Middle West was the McNary-Haugen movement, which had hoped 

 to make the tariff on agricultural products effective. The basic assump- 

 tion behind this program was that the tariff which had been greatly re- 

 sponsible for the profitableness of certain manufactures and industries 

 could be made to benefit the farmers also if only an effective wall, rather 

 than the traditional one, was put around their commodities. Its sponsors 

 felt, and with much justification, that in an era as dominated by the pro- 

 tectionist spirit as the decade of the twenties, it would be easier to put 

 duties on "basic" farm commodities than to try to lower those on the 

 goods and services the farmers bought. 1 This movement was in line with 

 the trend toward self-sufficiency, which was a powerful force in a disillu- 

 sioned postwar America; it also had the effect of focusing attention on 

 the conflict between the interests of agriculture and industry, and even 

 forced the Republican administration to give added encouragement to the 

 cooperative movement perhaps more than it would have liked to, but still 

 with the hope that cooperatives would satisfy farmer demands and check 

 any attempt to move the existing tariff structure in any direction other 

 than upward. 2 

 It was a foregone conclusion that the lower duties of the Underwood 



1. George N. Peek, "Equality for Agriculture with Industry," Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Political Science, XII (lanuary, 1927), pp. 564-75; see also the editorial, 

 "The Farmer and the Tariff," Wallaces' Farmer, XLV (October 22, 1922), p. 2469. 



2. Wilson Gee, American Farm Policy (New York, 1934), pp. 32-38. 



