WHAT SHOULD THE NATION PRODUCE? 75 



labor and capital the wants of the people can be more com- 

 pletely satisfied by producing the things which pay best and 

 buying from abroad the articles which cannot be produced or 

 which it is less profitable to produce in this country. 



The economic policy which should be followed by a nation 

 will depend largely upon the prospects for world peace and the 

 safety of international trade. Were world peace assured, a 

 world economy would be desirable, but at the present time the 

 student is constrained to give due attention to the importance 

 of the all-round development of agriculture with a view to being 

 able to feed and clothe the people with a minimum of com- 

 merce in times when all international law is swept aside. 



The opinion one will hold regarding free trade and protection 

 depends in part upon one's judgment with regard to future 

 peace. If we must become self-sufficing as a nation, protection 

 is one means of inducing farmers and manufacturers to produce 

 commodities which they would otherwise find unprofitable. 

 The national policy should be the one which will yield the maximum 

 well-being for the people of the nation through a long series of 

 generations. In view of the long periods of peace which the 

 world has enjoyed, particularly since the days of Napoleon, 

 and in view of the present hope for the beginning of a new era 

 of peaceful international relations, it would not seem wise to 

 look to a continuous self-sufficing policy in order to be ready 

 for war emergencies, but to be prepared for rapid readjustment 

 in agriculture if a period of unsettled international relations 

 should again overtake us. Sir James Caird advocated the free 

 importation of wheat into England on the theory that since at 

 that time wheat growing was less profitable to the nation than 

 grazing, it would be better to produce cattle during times of 

 peace and buy wheat with the expectation that if war condi- 

 tions should cut off the foreign supply the pastures could be 

 plowed up, put into wheat, and made to produce more for the 

 emergency than if wheat had been grown continuously. This 

 is exactly what England did, and during the World War the 

 wisdom of Caird's advice was demonstrated. 



Grain and cotton stand out as our great agricultural exports. 



