70 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



CHAPTER VI. 



How THE Farmer is Subjected to Most Unfair Trade 

 Conditions — The Strong Trade Posi- 

 tion OF Manufacture. 



The two great producing industries of the nation are 

 agriculture and manufacture. A third industry, mining, 

 is sometimes classed with the first of these, and again 

 with the last. The two great connecting links between 

 the two divisions of producing industries are trade and 

 transportation. Domestic and personal service and the 

 professions are built on these four industries. It is 

 apparent, then, that the products of the field and of the 

 shop form the basis of all occupations. The individuals 

 of these industries take of the other a greater value of 

 products than is taken by the individuals of any other 

 branch of occupation. Owing to inequality in trade posi- 

 tion the farmer is forced to consent to a most unfair 

 exchange ; and here we have the chief cause of the decline 

 of agricultural prosperity. Put in definite language : the 

 cause of such decline is the strong trade position of man- 

 ufacture on the one hand, and the defenseless trade posi- 

 tion of agriculture on the other hand. 



In this chapter we consider the trade position of man- 

 ufacture. 



Most of the time from 1860 to 1900, while there has 

 been a great demand for manufactured products, there 

 has been a great surplus of agricultural products. But 

 as this feature will be taken up in the next chapter we 



