39^ AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



tariffs and compelled to operate at a cumulative loss so that the Eastern in- 

 dustrialist might continue to reap benefits in foreign trade. The West cannot 

 withstand indefinitely the drain upon its capital resources by Eastern industry, 

 and the waning purchasing power of the farmer must inevitably drag in its ruin 

 western commerce and industry depending upon it. It is for that reason that 

 Western business, banking and manufacture are vitally interested in the solu- 

 tion of the agricultural problem, and dare joining with the farmer in demanding 

 prompt and adequate redress. 



Eastern business has for years deliberately and systematically propagandized 

 Western business, and is doing it now, and unfortunately the economic views 

 of many Western business men have come almost entirely from Eastern sources 

 whose interests are opposed to ours. These interests have branded as "eco- 

 nomically unsound" any and all proposals to make existing tariffs effective for 

 agriculture while they proclaim as inviolable the tariff advantages secured by 

 Eastern industry with the aid of Western votes. It is to correct this cruel and 

 demoralizing situation that the agricultural and business interests of the West, 

 North and South are uniting in their demands that the protective system be 

 extended to the farmer and that existing tariff schedules on agricultural products 

 be now made effective for him. The time for a showdown in the West has come. 

 The economic interests of the farmers and the business men in the West are the 

 same. The farmer is fighting with his back to the wall for the preservation of 

 his home and a square deal. The hour has come when Western business should 

 familiarize itself with conditions as they are and make common cause with 

 those who are contending for equal rights within the nation's protective system. 

 The fight in which we are engaged must be carried on aggressively and admits 

 of no compromise. If it is a wise policy to protect industry in the East it must 

 be equally wise to protect agriculture in the West. If protection is not to be 

 accorded to the West there is no reason why it should not [sic] be continued in 

 the East. We demand for the West equal rights with the East, protection for 

 all or protection for none. 



In this, our struggle for equal rights, we demand of our representatives in the 

 legislative halls more than passive support. We must have loyal and militant 

 support of a type that will not hesitate to take the offensive, disregard party 

 ties, resist administrative pressure, and carry on an aggressive fight until the 

 principle for agriculture has been vindicated and established. 66 



The fall elections of 1926, however, showed that hardly a dent had 

 been made in the Republican columns of the western Middle West by 

 the McNary-Haugenites. In Nebraska Governor Adam McMullen, the 

 Republican candidate to succeed himself, was re-elected by a narrow 



66. Minnesota Farm Bureau News, August i, 1926. 



