144 THE GREEN RISING 



ernment collects $124,481,848 at the custom-houses 

 It is all added to the cost of living. Over $92,000,000 

 goes to the sugar manufacturers and producers. The 

 beet-sugar factories in the West need no tariff, for 

 they are 'protected' by freight rates from the ports. 

 The only American farmers who get any good of it, 

 broadly speaking, are those of Louisiana. Their out- 

 put gets about $2,500,000 a year by it. In other 

 words, we tax ourselves $92,037,778 to give the 

 Louisiana people $2,500,000. It would be better to 

 pay them for letting their lands lie fallow if we 

 could get cheaper sugar thereby. The farmers of 

 the whole country need cheap sugar more than any 

 one else. The tariff is not laid for the benefit of 

 the cane-growers, or the beet-growers, but for the 

 great interests engaged in the manufacture and re- 

 fining of sugar. The farmers even in sugar produc- 

 ing regions would be quite as well off if not a pound 

 of sugar were produced. They could use their lands 

 as profitably for other crops. And the beet-sugar 

 business is introducing labor conditions which de- 

 bauch their communities." 6 



The conclusion of this writer is that "a tariff for 

 the benefit of the farmer has been, and is, bunk 

 abysmal bunk. . . . Farm benefits from tariff acts 

 are always in the clouds never in the clods." 



While it is believed that Herbert Quick is reflect- 

 ing the general view of the farm population of the 

 country with reference to the effect of the tariff on 



6 Ibid., Chap. IV, pp. 32 and 33. 



