38 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



peace. Selfishness brought on the French 

 Revolution, the American Revolution, the 

 Russian Revolution, They all came very 

 slowly and gradually, but they came. Let 

 us profit by the past and make for our beau- 

 tiful America a glorious future. We are 

 dissipating the wealth of our arid lands 

 that rightfully belongs to our posterity. 

 These lands would hold their latent wealth 

 for generations if the water was kept off of 

 it. The lands already under cultivation have 

 lost billions of dollars' worth of fertility by 

 erosion through poor methods of agricul- 

 ture. The rich Red River Valley has lost 

 millions by erosion. The Willamette Valley 

 has lost equally as much. The reason of 

 such deplorable waste is found in the in- 

 equitable tariff protection to our manufac- 

 ture and to the production of raw materials. 

 The import duty imposed on imported goods 

 is a bounty on American labor and Amer- 

 ican manufactures, and although it is very 

 evident such tariffs are absolutely neces- 

 sary to keep up the standard of American 

 life, the protective party has been sadly re- 

 miss in not putting on corresponding export 

 bounties on raw materials which we export 

 to other countries in competition with the 

 cheap labor, and thereby forcing our pro- 

 ducers to sell free trade raw material to 

 protected interests. 



Let me illustrate. We have 35 cents per 

 bushel protection on wheat and we export 



