Protection 



but only talk to the man who is quite sure already 

 that he does know. 



Well, then, we must thrash it out for ourselves. 



In Germany the " Agrarian " party seem to 

 have things pretty much their own way with 

 thumping taxes on food, and this is said to ac- 

 count for the phenomenal rise of Socialism. Cer- 

 tainly the Socialist battle-cry is " Taxes off our 

 food," and that, as we found at home recently, 

 is a provocative alarm. In America, on the other 

 hand, the farmers do not seem so powerful and 

 have not the lion's share in the tariff-fostered 

 prosperity; in fact, so far from it, that they are agi- 

 tating for Free Trade. They are not afraid of food 

 imports, producing themselves all that they re- 

 quire, so that Free Trade could not seriously 

 lower their prices, whilst what they purchase, all 

 implements, harness, furniture, clothes, hire of 

 labour, cost of freights, and railway charges, in 

 short, all outgoings, are very much higher under 

 Protection. They argue that under Free Trade 

 their products would make practically the same 

 whilst their expenditure would be (say) halved. 

 It seems, therefore, that in these countries the 

 value of tariffs to a farmer varies directly with his 

 political influence. The American farmers have no 

 show at all against the commercial kings and 

 money interests which control the political strings. 



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