46 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



farmer could not afford to keep his labor 

 steady and those poor men became hoboes, 

 drifting from Oregon to California with the 

 seasons. When I look back I remember 

 about 30 years ago just at sunset, I was 

 gathering my little brood for evening 

 prayer. I looked out west towards my po- 

 tato pits. I saw a poor hobo quietly walk- 

 ing towards the pits. I never let him know 

 he was seen and no doubt he got a chicken 

 as well, but I had a heart full of sympathy 

 for him, because I knew he and millions of 

 others were the victims of one of the cruel- 

 est acts of vicious national legislation ever 

 imposed on a civiHzed race of people. I had 

 seen things differently back in the State of 

 Ohio, where I lived among a happy and 

 prosperous rural people not yet affected by 

 the tariffs. The hired men were hired by 

 the year and had steady work. The married 

 men were furnished a house and only $20 

 per month, but when one-sided protection 

 forced the price of unskilled labor to $2 per 

 day the farmer had to skimp along with 

 casual labor and in the meantime the la- 

 borer either went into the city or became a 

 wandering tramp. I think I have shown 

 very conclusively in a previous part of this 

 booklet where that condition can be com- 

 pletely cured. I attended a lecture by the 

 noted Miss Ida Tarbell on the cause of un- 

 employment. She seemed totally ignorant 

 of the vital facts and never once alluded to 



