Farmer Protected from Imaginary Banger. 11 



tural imports ; many of these were from 50 to 100 per 

 cent, above the former rates. Oats were raised from 10 

 to 15 cents a bushel ; butter and cheese, from 4 cents per 

 pound to 6 cents ; hops, from 8 to 15 cents per pound. 

 None of these were of sufficient vakie to have separate 

 mention in the importations. With one single exception, 

 the driblets of imports were so small in comparison with 

 the productions of the same kind of this country that 

 even had they not been balanced by exports, no general 

 effect could possibly have been produced by their intro- 

 duction here. Barley was the exception; the value of 

 that imported was nearly one-fourth of the production of 

 this nation. But if the additional rate of duty gave at 

 first a better price to our producers, the advantage seems 

 to have been lost in a year or two, for price then sank to 

 the level of, or below, that of former years. 



The rate of duty was increased on wheat, in spite of 

 the fact that neither from Canada nor from any other 

 part of the world was more than $125,000 worth imported 

 that year (1889) into the United States, against an 

 exportation abroad of over $96,000,000. 



Of provisions (meat and dairy products) it is seen 

 scarcely any were imported from Canada, and we 

 exported to that country over $7,000,000. Yet the Cana- 

 dian invasion appeared so alarming in these products to 

 Mr. Dingley and other Eepublicans that the rates of 

 duties on butter and cheese were raised 50 per cent, and 

 hams and bacon 200 per cent. The same year we sent 

 abroad of hog products alone over $66,000,000 worth, 

 while the total importations of all meat products at the 

 same time were but $472,000. The farmer who cannot 

 see through such plain political trickery as this cannot 

 see through a ladder with rounds two feet apart ! 



