Political Economy and the Land 



How splendid a part Protection has played in 

 the development of the United States, even 

 admitting that the tariff has in some measure 

 increased the cost of living, and also that the 

 nation at large has been taxed in favour of the 

 manufacturing classes, is shown by the results 

 achieved. A 5oo% increase on the output of 

 manufactured goods between the years i860 

 and 1900 ! I was in Kansas and other middle 

 western States just before the McKinley tariff 

 came into force ; the land was occupied by a 

 sparse population of struggling farmers, wretch- 

 edly housed and heavily in debt, with no market 

 for their produce. The McKinley tariff gave a 

 creative impetus to manufactures in that area, 

 and, when I visited it four years later, large 

 manufacturing towns stood on the sites of 

 former straggling hamlets, big markets were 

 provided for the farmers, who in that short 

 period had responded to the changed condition 

 to such an extent that they had been able to 

 clear themselves of debt and build comfortable 

 homes as well. 



In this case the chief benefit accrued to agricul- 

 ture from the way in which the tariff influenced 

 capital, guiding it through factories to the land. 



Before leaving the American farmer, I must 

 quote a paragraph from the report of the 

 American Department of Agriculture, and the 

 comments thereon which appeared in a con- 



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