THE INFLUENCE OF THE TARIFF 143 



The viewpoint of thousands of farmers is re- 

 flected in a recent book of Herbert Quick, written 

 shortly before his death, in which he contends that 

 the farmers of the nation are never benefited by a 

 protective tariff, even when it includes many of the 

 products of the farmer. After saying that the free 

 flow of wheat and cotton to European markets is 

 chargeable to our existing tariff, he goes on to say: 

 "But we through our tariff laws shut out many of 

 the goods with which they would, if they could, buy 

 our wheat and cotton; and their currencies are de- 

 preciated so that exchange is against the trade. So 

 they go on naked and starving, while we also suffer 

 from our own glut of what they bitterly need. All 

 that is needed in order to bring relief to our farmers 

 and Europe, is to put demand in touch with supply. 



"If we had a law giving greater freedom in the 

 place of the restrictive laws we now have, the mar- 

 kets of the world might lift the farmers out of the 

 hole in which they find themselves." 5 ' 



Quick argues the effect of the tariff on agriculture 

 by referring specifically to its influence on corn, 

 wheat, flax seed, rice, sugar, wool, beef cattle, and 

 other products in the typical agricultural state of 

 Texas. After directing attention to the fact that the 

 sugar tariff costs the American people two dollars 

 per capita, which aggregates a total of $216,519,626 

 a year for all the American people, he says: 



"Of this tremendous sum, the United States gov- 



6 The Real Trouble with the Farmers, Chap. Ill, pp. 22 and 23. 



