38 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



products." ^^Tlie avowed policy of the United States has 

 for years been to prohibit or obstruct trade on the part 

 of her citizens, in respect to many articles, with the citi- 

 zens of all foreign countries ; and with this examjDle, and 

 in part from a spirit of retaliation, there can be no doubt 

 that the objective of much of the restrictive commercial 

 legislation of other countries in recent years has been the 

 United States — a policy which has notably affected the 

 agricultural supremacy of the latter country in the 

 world's markets; the exports from the United States, 

 comparing 1888 with 1881, of cattle, having declined 24.5 

 in quantity and 19% in value: of hog products 43.3 in 

 value, and of dairy products over 50% in value. The de- 

 cline in the value of the exi3orts of the United States to 

 France has been especially noteworthy, namely, from a 

 value of $99,000,000 in 1880 to $40,000,000 in 1886, and 

 $37,780,000 in 1888." 



From these quotations from D. A. Weils and other 

 authorities it is evident that about 1880 the nations began 

 to pay us back in our own coin. In 1880 and 1881 the 

 exportations of agricultural products were unusually 

 large, so it seems more fair to take the average value of 

 six years as a basis for computation. The average of the 

 years 1878 to 1883, inclusive, is $620,000,000. Glancing 

 along the record from 1880 it is seen that only six times 

 was this value of agricultural exports exceeded clear up 

 to 1898. These years were 1881, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894 

 and 1897. The average value of the six years 1892-1897, 

 inclusive, was about $641,000,000; the last year, 1897, 

 $683,000,000 ; in 1880, $685,000,000. Under low rates of 

 duties, 1850-1860, eleven years, the percentage of gain in 

 agricultural exports was 138%. In eighteen or twenty 

 years of high protective duties hardly any gain in value 



