12 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



without straw, that the latter wrong sinks 

 into insignificance when arrayed alongside 

 the first mentioned, for the American farm- 

 er could soon devise a way to make bricks 

 without straw, but he has found it impossi- 

 ble to pay for protected labor and buy pro- 

 tected everything with the money received 

 for a free trade bushel of wheat. Experi- 

 ence again and again has taught us that 

 protection is our watchword. We saw how 

 free wool was nearly the entire destruction 

 of our sheep industry. Free cattle made 

 bankrupt thousands of cattlemen. Under 

 the McKinley law in 1890 with a duty of $10 

 per head the cattle business flourished, but 

 in 1894 when the tariff was reduced to 20 

 per cent ad valorem, Representative Noo- 

 nan of Texas before the Ways and Means 

 Committee of the 54th Congress, January 

 5th, 1897, said the present tariff has prac- 

 tically placed horses, cattle, sheep and goats 

 on the free list, and it has resulted in great 

 loss to the breeders of stock, many of whom 

 have been bankrupted. Numerous ranches 

 have been abandoned or have gone into de- 

 cay and millions of acres of good grazing 

 lands are unused and the grass wasted be- 

 cause the business does not justify stock- 

 men in raising animals for market at pres- 

 ent rates. As a consequence all their indus- 

 tries are languishing from the effects of 

 Mexican competition. Nearly half a million 

 of cattle have been imported from Mexico 



