Less Foreign Demand for Products. 45 



1883 to 1892-1897! It is pretty evident that while Mr. 

 StaiiTvoocl combats the idea that high duties do not lessen 

 the exportations of agricultural products, on the other 

 hand he does not believe that these increase such export- 

 ations : for strange to say he ascribes the prosperity of 

 recent years chiefly to other causes than the protective 

 system. Listen to this: ''The political conditions under 

 which the act of 1897 (Dingley Act) was passed and the 

 commercial and industrial conditions that have pre- 

 vailed during the years it has been in operation have been 

 as favorable to its success as those conditions which ap- 

 plied to the two preceding acts were unfavorable." 



Again he says: ''MeanwhiJe, prosperity had returned 

 to the country. Good crops, an ample market, and high 

 prices rewarded the efforts of the farmers, and enabled 

 them to pay off a portion of their indebtedness which 

 they had been tempted to wipe off with a silver sponge. 

 Every avenue of commerce was crowded ; every industry 

 was full of activity; every branch of trade felt the im- 

 pulse of good times. In 1897 the country was ready for 

 a season of great prosperity. The industrial revolution 

 alreadv mentioned as a check to activitv was substan 

 tially completed. The uncertainty as to the monetary 

 standard was dispelled. In short, all things were made 

 easy for the success of the tariff. The act of 1897 did not 

 make prosperity possible, nor did it create prosperity. 

 Undoubted Iv it added largelv to the benefits the countrv 

 would have enjoyed had the act of 1894 been undisturbed. 

 After all, it is a truism — a narrow. margin separates suc- 

 cess from failure. In a business enterprise, when once 

 the margin is on the right side, every addition is wholly 

 profit. It cannot be doubted that the Dingley Act gave 

 an enormous increment to the profits of American com- 



