CHAPTER IV. 



PROTECTION A DEADLY ENEMY TO THE FARMERS 



OF AMERICA. 



In fair New England, among the great manufacturers, 

 pampered and protected for generations ; on the broad 

 prairies of the West ; down the valley of the Mississippi, 

 unequalled for its fertility ; in favored Ontario, and in 

 the provinces by the sea, the farmers have a common 

 cause in resisting the great foes which threaten their 

 annihilation. To this end, it is absolutely necessary 

 that their foes be well known, and that their modes of 

 operation be clearly understood. 



It is perfectly familiar to the tariff student, that almost 

 every thing the farmers require as consumers is taxed 

 in America to near the utmost limit. But many protec- 

 tionists maintain that the prices of goods are not higher 

 on account of indirect taxes levied on them. This latter 

 claim is, of course, denied by the state socialist laborer, 

 who contends that the Manchester free-trade theories 

 threaten to bring about a competition that would reduce 

 the price of goods and the price of labor to a shadow. 



The socialists are right, as a rule, in their contention 

 that free competition — that is to say, competition where 

 monopoly controls no part of production — causes a con- 

 stant lowering of the cost and price in exchange of 

 products, but not that through this laborers would be 

 injured. 



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