402 TAXATION PROBLEMS 



" New England Industrial Supremacy Imperilled by Agricultural Decline. 

 From 1860 to 1910 there was a startling decline in New England agriculture, 

 clearly indicated by the following facts: 



Farm land under cultivation decreased 5,103,073 acres, or 42 per cent. 



Cattle decreased from 56 to 20 per 100 population. 



Sheep decreased from 60 to 4 per 100 population. 



Population of 828 rural towns decreased 32 per cent. 



Total population increased 110 per cent. 



Wage earners increased during this same period from 390,806 to 1,191,290, 

 or 359 per cent. 



New England must to-day import over 75 per cent of the food consumed. 



As long as the food production in New England becomes less in comparison 

 with the consumption, the differential must increase and ultimately reach a 

 point where it will become increasingly difficult for New England to maintain 

 its industries. 



A successful farming community is one of the strongest factors in main- 

 taining social stability. The farmer is not only a producer of the primary 

 source of wealth, but is also a property owner and a small employer of labor 

 and naturally stands for stability." 



In order to secure an increasing element of " stability" of 

 society, and in order to overcome the industrial handicap of dear 

 food, the League is promoting agriculture, functioning through 

 these various agencies: The Eastern States Agricultural and Indus- 

 trial Exposition (to improve herds, crops, fruits, and farm practice) ; 

 Market Bureau; Farm Finance Bureau; Boys' and Girls' Bureau; 

 Publicity Bureau; New England Farm and Food Foundation. The 

 last named agency " seeks to combine from ten to fifteen thousand 

 manufacturing, mercantile and banking institutions with the 

 progressive farmers of New England, in a joint effort to make 

 effective such agencies as will enable the farmers to introduce 

 modern methods for the purpose of greater, better and more 

 economic production, and to effect a more efficient system of 

 distribution, as well as establish adequate credit facilities." 



It is not claimed that the protective tariff caused this decline 

 in New England agriculture, but only that it contributed largely 

 to this end by disturbing, artificially, the balance that first existed 

 among agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce in New England. 

 The law created an artificial status. It has now reached its logical 

 fruition. Many a shrewd Yankee farmer is still raising wheat for 

 his New England cousins only he now is raising this wheat in 

 Kansas and Nebraska, where one day's work will produce much 

 more wheat than in New England, transportation costs included. 



Webster's great tariff speech of 1824 set forth the true situation 

 as concerned New England, a region then enjoying a prosperous 

 agriculture and a prosperous commerce. He said: 



"With me it is a fundamental axiom, it is interwoven with all my opinions, 

 that the great interests of the country are united and inseparable; that agri- 



