52 The Tariff arid the Farmer. 



noted when the effect of retaliatory tariffs began to be 

 felt, very closely resembles this description of Mr. Wells. 

 In his book, ''Eecent Economic Changes," in a note, are 

 given some extracts from the ''Eeport of the Chamber of 

 Commerce of Cincinnati" of Ohio, the year ending Aug. 

 31, 1886. We quote: "There is one condition revealed 

 by the statistics of 1885-86 that is very noticeable, which 

 is that prices in general touched the lowest point in a 

 quarter of a century. There were those who supposed 

 that the shrinking processes had been arrested in the pre- 

 ceding year, and yet the figures for 1885-86, in nearly all 

 departments of business, show lower prices than the pre- 

 vious year. In presence of the low prices of 1884-85 it 

 seems almost incredible that so much of market value 

 could be wrung from them as has been during the past 

 year."^ Again from the same report: "It may be inter- 

 esting to take a glance at the tremendous reduction which 

 has taken place in the past five years, which, in articles 

 that enter into the every-day wants of man, in not a few 

 instances has been equal to almost one-half their value in 

 1881-82. The gravitation to a lower plane of value has 

 been so steady as to prevent a full appreciation of the 

 enormous shrinkage to which commodities have been sub- 

 jected. Thus, in mess-pork the depreciation in the gen- 

 eral average price since 1881-82 has been 48.57c ; in prime 

 steam lard, 46; hams, 24.4; shelled corn, 43; aats (which 

 in Europe have shown no tendency in recent years to fall 

 in iDrice), 39.4; rye, 32.6; bran, 33.8; extra butter, 46.9; 

 tallow, 41.4; flour, 34.3; linseed oil, 30; salt, 18.6; cheese, 

 17.1; fair to medium cattle, 18.3; middling cotton, 21.7; 

 Louisiana rice, 28.9; barley, 18.6; and wool, 15%."^ 



' "Recent Economic Changes," 201. 

 ' "Recent Economic Changes," 202. 



