108 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



time as would more prosperous conditions. If the latter 

 prevailed there would be smaller aggregations of individ- 

 ual ^vealth with which to effect a practical serfdom of the 

 soil." 



The above is copied from an article in the Massachu- 

 setts Springfield Weekly Eepublican of AugTist 8, 1902. 



We think the doubts expressed by the journal exceed- 

 ingly well taken. Which is most likely to be the sturdy, 

 independent farmer admired by Mr. Boutwell — the one 

 who has a master in the form of a mortgage so heavy 

 that to keep the interest paid requires unceasing, exhaus- 

 tive effort, where care presses incessantly like a dead 

 weight on the breast; or the man whose well-directed 

 efforts on a fertile farm have secured a handsome bank 

 account to his credit? AVhich of these two will dare look 

 a haughty opponent square in the face and express op- 

 posing views — the one whose weak financial condition 

 causes a constant seeking of favors from those about 

 him, or the other on whom no man has any hold, who 

 feels perfectly able to care for himself? 



Did Mr. Boutwell take into consideration the fact that 

 because of poor returns, the old original Yankee stock 

 has largely been driven from the farms, and into their 

 places have come men from Canada, Sweden, Germany? 

 Will this change to men of less intelligence, who have 

 not inherited love for our country and its free institu- 

 tions, lessen the danger of the farmer's becoming a serf 

 on the soil?" 



Whoever heard before that the way to keep ''our 

 sturdiest people still self-supporting" was by making it 

 ' ' hard to make the two ends meet ? " 



The farmers of 1776 brooked no tyrants, but in our day 

 the blood of agricultural prosperity has been sucked to 

 such an extent by the vampires of monopoly that no life 



