The Tariff and the Farmer. 33 



products are similar to those of the best paid labor in 

 Europe, is protected by the tremendous odds of a fifty 

 per cent, tax; our farmers are competing in Europe, to 

 the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars, with the 

 poorest paid ''pauper labor of Europe." 



The review and summary of the agricultural situation 

 ends here, but there are points in dispute, not strictly 

 relating to the farmer, but having most important bear- 

 ings, of which a few words should be said. Not to say 

 them would be like an army leaving behind it a fortress 

 of the enemy. 



We dispute the claim that national prosperity and high 

 wages are due to the protective system. 



National prosperity and industrial progress, we claim, 

 are due to our unrivaled natural resources and their 

 development by the most industrious, enterprising and 

 ingenious of all people. The natural resources consist 

 chiefly of the riches of the soil and mineral wealth. The 

 value of these taken from the ground in 1850 must have 

 been over $2,000,000,000. There was a steady rise in 

 value year after year till 1900, when the figures stand at 

 $5,800,000,000. It is claimed that intensified farming 

 and scientific treatment can wring annually from the 

 earth twice or thrice what is now obtained. 



Mr. Carroll D. Wright says, ' ' The natural resources of 

 the United States consist of almost every species of raw 

 material produced by or from the earth essential to make 

 a nation great in the three lines of development — agricul- 

 ture, manufacture, commerce." Again, "The United 

 States, according to careful estimates, possesses at least 

 50% of the coal area of the world. Our supply is esti- 

 mated to be equal to the demand for 1000 years." 



