THE TARIFF AND THE FARMER. 



Eeview and Summaky of the Larger Edition. 



'^In most ages the working farmer has been the dupe 

 and prey of the rest of mankind. Now by force and now 

 by cajolery, as social customs and political institutions 

 change, he has been made to produce the food by which 

 the race lives, and the share of his products, which he has 

 been permitted to keep for himself, has always been piti- 

 fully small. Whether Eoman slave, Frankish serf, or 

 English villain; whether the independent farmer of a 

 free democracy, or the ryot of a Hindu prince, the gen- 

 eral rule holds good."^ 



In chapter I is shown how attempts were made to dupe 

 the ' ' independent farmer of a free democracy. ' ' 



In 1890 the total value of our surplus agricultural 

 products sent abroad was $629,000,000; in the previous 

 year, 1889, $532,000,000. Of the latter, $22,585,000 went 

 to Canada. In return, that country sent us not quite 

 $20,000,000 of agricultural products. Most persons 

 would say that we were getting the best end of the bar- 

 gain. But a new tariff bill was being considered in Con- 

 gress, and the managers of it wished to secure the sup- 

 port of the agricultural vote. So it remained for Mr. 

 Dingley to make the remarkable discovery that the prod- 

 ucts coming in over the border were ^ ' disastrously ' ' com- 



^ W. J. Ghent, in ''Our Benevolent Feudalism," page 47. 



