14 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



tition abroad and at home. But when was the time when 

 the American farmer was not in competition in foreign 

 markets with the lowest priced labor of other countries ? 

 And where was there any evidence of increased danger 

 of being driven from the home market? To secure the 

 support of farmers for his measure he sought to frighten 

 them by drawing on his imagination. 



As concerns the wheat trade, for which he seemed to be 

 particularly anxious, he tells what the production was of 

 certain countries, but does not give the quantities con- 

 sumed by the same. The material point as to whether or 

 not the wheat trade of those nations is likely to prove 

 dangerous to American agriculture is what is the amount 

 of surplus. But of this he gives no idea. If a nation 

 produces a billion of bushels, and all it can produce is 

 consumed by its people, the farmers of other lands have 

 little more reason to fear disastrous trade from such 

 source than as if that country were a desert waste with- 

 out production or people. Two of the countries, the 

 amount of whose productions of wheat he gave, France 

 and Italy, were importers and not exporters of wheat. It 

 is safe to say also that of wheat produced in Asia, outside 

 British India, very little is exported. Supplies from 

 British India are very uncertain, owing to the great fam- 

 ines that often prevail there. Certainly, at the time 

 when Mr. McKinley made his speech, there was no reason 

 for apprehending danger from India, as for several years 

 there had been a falling-off in exportations. Data have 

 not been found for recent years by the writer, but the 

 report of ^'Commerce and Navigation of the United 

 States for 1893 ' ' makes this significant sentence in refer- 

 ence to wheat and other breads^tuff s : ''They would also 

 show that the United States need have little apprehen- 



