108 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



industrial and agricultural growth. The ab- 

 sence of adequate protection for farm products 

 during the period of the last administration 

 when the Underwood Tariff Act was in force 

 was offset by the unusual demand which arose 

 for food due to the world war. Our agricultural 

 exports had begun to decline. Our city popula- 

 tion was increasing; new lands were no longer 

 available and more intensive farming was be- 

 coming necessary. The inevitable result was 

 that costs began to rise and as costs rose the 

 importation of agricultural products competing 

 with our own increased. The war intervened 

 and changed the direction of the trend for a 

 time. 



For years the tariff was of comparatively 

 little value or importance to the American 

 farmer except in the case of a few products 

 like wool and sugar. In most cases farmers 

 received but little benefit from the tariff. Our 

 southern states, for instance, were almost solid- 

 ly opposed to protection because their main 

 product, cotton, met with no competition from 

 abroad. But now, at the end of the war, we 

 find an insistent demand for tariff legislation 

 from the south which will protect the farmers 

 of that region from the competition of products 



