THE FARMER'S INTEREST. 203 



dustry of man." Certainly, with such a system, few 

 would be able to escape the privilege of at least paying 

 taxes. 



The great difficulty, however, in the way of a fair deal 

 in a policy of protection, or of monopoly, was pointed 

 out by Mr. Stanley Jevons. " There would," remarked 

 he, "be a certain fairness in the establishment of monop- 

 olies if all trades were equally able to combine and tax 

 each other. The result, of course, would be very absurd 

 and very pernicious, but it would be equal ; as a matter 

 of fact, however, those who most need combination to 

 better their fortunes are just those who are the least able 

 to carry it out." This is true enough, and the farmers 

 of Canada, as those of the United States, are among 

 those who cannot combine either under free trade or 

 protection as protection is administered. After all, 

 what do wool duties amount to in protecting the United 

 States farmer ? Measured by the trade and navigation 

 returns, they amount annually to about $1.70 per farmer 

 (his whole protection amounting to not more than $3.00 

 per capita). Measured in the same way, the average 

 manufacturer gets not far from $100. With the best 

 that can be done for him, the United States farmer can 

 get but the merest trifle through such means. 



That protection to the Canadian farmer can accom- 

 plish little, unless each province or, in fact, each county 

 could be made a protected unit, is shown by the fact 

 that even with the slight duties she imposes against the 

 import of farm produce, the import of this line of goods 

 is only about %\ to $50 produced, while she is able to 

 export %\ to every %\z produced. So slight is the ad- 

 vantage which the Canadian farmer takes of the little 

 protection allowed him, that the foreign producer makes 



