134 THE THIRD POWER 



he buys and yet is protected on scarcely anything he 

 sells. This is an evil that must be righted, and it 

 can be righted, but only by the combined efforts of 

 the farmers. Until there are such efforts nothing 

 will be done. As long as there are a few people who 

 can control the taxing power of the government, 

 and many people who are content to have that power 

 so used, it is idle to hope for relief. The few will 

 control as long as the many allow them to control — 

 and not one moment longer. Even the slightest 

 measure of relief is denied at the present time. Op- 

 portunities have long been presented for making 

 reciprocal commercial treaties with foreign nations 

 that would have had the effect of making a much 

 larger market for farm products, but they have in- 

 variably been put aside at the dictation of selfish 

 interests demanding protection. Treaty after treaty 

 of this sort has been killed or allowed to die in the 

 Senate, which has been indifferent to the welfare 

 of the farmer if only the protected industries were 

 allowed to have a monopoly of the home market. 

 Rather than remove or lower the duty on one article 

 manufactured in New England, our Congress has 

 preferred to allow the farmer to get along as best he 

 could — to find his own market. Yet when protec- 

 tion hurts a certain corporation, Congress is quick 

 to grant a rebate of the tax on any product that goes 

 into a manufactured article when that article is ex- 

 ported. But nothing is done for the farmer. 



Yet there are many millions of foreigners who 



