THE INFLUENCE OF THE TARIFF 149 



posed on all the materials entering into the same, 

 and the fact that the manufacturer dominates the 

 world compels the farmer to pay high-tariff prices 

 just the same. While the inevitable logic of high 

 tariffs is that home production should not exceed 

 home consumption, ultraprotectionists are striving 

 to expand the exports of industry while they are 

 advising the farmer to restrict his output to the 

 home demand. They tell him that he should be 

 content with home markets. In the first place, the 

 farmer's home market is secure, regardless of tariffs ; 

 secondly, of what concern is the home or any other 

 market to the farmer unless he can sell at a price 

 above the cost of production? The farmer is inter- 

 ested in prices above all else. High-tariff advocates 

 also tell the farmer that his collapse in 1921 was 

 primarily due to commercial depression, whereas in 

 truth the commercial depression was primarily due 

 to the agriculture collapse and loss of purchasing 

 power." 



The proposed farm relief legislation under con- 

 sideration by the Sixty-ninth Congress brought forth 

 widespread discussion in the press of the country. 

 The farm press was particularly vigorous in its ad- 

 vocacy of remedial laws. Most of the editorial com- 

 ment referred to the inequality of the tariff schedules 

 in justifying a subsidy for agriculture. The Pro- 

 gressive Farmer, an ably edited and widely read 

 paper in the South, analyzes the situation as follows : 



"The high tariff tends to lessen the importation 



