THE INFLUENCE OF THE TARIFF 135 



created concern in all the Atlantic States. There 

 was great fear that the old sections of the country 

 would become partially depopulated, and that both 

 economic and political power would be shifted to 

 other sections of the country. However, this feeling 

 of alarm was somewhat neutralized by the rapid de- 

 velopment of the manufacturing interests in New 

 England. But in the South there were no counter- 

 balancing agencies to offset the loss sustained by the 

 migrations farther west. In fact, the South was 

 adversely affected in two ways by this situation. 

 In the first place, there was a decrease in land 

 values; in the second place, the extension of the area 

 of cotton culture, with a corresponding increase in 

 production, caused an over-supply and a fall in the 

 price of this product. Many people believed that 

 the protective tariff was responsible for the economic 

 distress throughout the South. It appeared to the 

 agricultural producers that the manufacturing in- 

 terests of the North and East were being built up 

 at the expense of agricultural production, and that 

 the inequality of economic opportunity was largely 

 the result of the unjust tariff policies of Congress. 

 But the agricultural interests were not of one 

 mind with reference to this matter. The farmers 

 of the West were in the same position logically as 

 those of the South, but they did not react in the 

 same way to the tariff policies of the country. This 

 is explained by the fact that the economic situation 

 of the western farmers was better than that of the 



