66 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



machines, manure-spreaders, liay-cutters, and winnowing 

 machines. Multiply what the average farmer yearly buys 

 of manufactured products in building a home, supporting 

 his familv and carrying on his industry by the number of 

 farmers in the United States (from fiye to six million) 

 and the total sum, we believe, would be between one and 

 two billions of dollars. 



AVe are often reminded of the great gain that accrues 

 to the farmer from the manufacturing industry, but 

 rarely is acknowledgment made of the boundless indebt- 

 edness of the manufacturing class to the farming com- 

 munity. The farming class provides three essentials, 

 without either one of which manufacture here would 

 wither and die : food to nourish and sustain its millions ; 

 raw material for its shops, and a market for its products. 

 From no other source than the American farmer could 

 the two former be obtained ; and where in the wide world 

 are there purchasers who could furnish a market for that 

 which is now taken bv the American farmer ? The farmer 

 could get along without the American manufacturer, as 

 he did in old colonial davs ; but what could the latter do 

 without the American farmer? 



How much more farmers' supplies cost because of con- 

 fiscation rates of duties, no one can tell. Mr. Mulhall, a 

 noted English statistician, has already been quoted as 

 saying: "The value of American manufactures is arti- 

 ficially raised by protective tariffs fully 33 /v over the 

 real value." If the increase of artificial value did not 

 approach this per cent., why the need of 509^ duties? 



Governor Cummings of Iowa in an interview reported 

 in the Outlook of September 20, 1902, when asked for an 

 example of a monopoly which should be deprived of pro- 

 tection, replied: "Well, take tin plate and steel rails: 



