46 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



merce and labor, which would, in any event, probably 

 have been satisfactory/' 



It is a wonderful thing, perhaps without a precedent, 

 that a protectionist should claim so little as due to the 

 system he upholds. But it is evident that the change of 

 conditions taking his own statements was so great that 

 these alone were amply sufficient to account for the 

 greater prosperity and the larger exportations. 



A change to far more favorable industrial conditions 

 at home must invariably result, other things being equal, 

 in a large increase in foreign trade, both in importations 

 and exportations. This would account for no inconsider- 

 able gain in agricultural exports. What had still greater 

 effect was the larger crops of exportable products raised 

 in the United States. Thus, in wheat, the annual average 

 number of bushels produced since 1896 was about 80,000,- 

 000 bushels more than the average of that year and the 

 three preceding years. The annual average gain in corn 

 for the same years, about 426,000,000 bushels ; of oats, 

 46,000,000 bushels; of pounds of cotton, 1,247,000,000. 

 These computations are in round numbers, but are near 

 enough to convey a good idea of the gain made in produc- 

 tion in recent years. 



On the other hand, the wheat crop of Europe annually 

 averaged something like 55,000,000 bushels less for the 

 five years from 1897 to 1901 than the three preceding 

 years, 1894-1896. 



Besides this, we apprehend that the continuous fall in 

 price of these products ever since war times, until they 

 have reached a level far below what tliev were before the 

 war, has had much to do with the increase in exporta- 

 tions ; for it is a well-known fact that low prices stimulate 

 consumption ; in other words, far more persons can afford 



