210 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



versialist to conceal the patent fact that 

 the general purpose of farmers who support 

 Tariff Reform is to secure better prices for the 

 goods they sell. 



We might, therefore, unreservedly associate 

 farmers with landowners as certain gainers 

 from a system of import duties, were it not 

 for the following facts. As mentioned above, 

 any considerable advance in the price of farm 

 produce tends sooner or later to a rise in the 

 tenants' rent. Again, the farmer must not 

 forget that he is not only a seller of agricultural 

 produce but also a buyer. Vast quantities 

 of barley, oilcake and other feeding-stuffs are 

 purchased by the tenant-farmer, and the 

 increased cost of these must be set against 

 the enhanced revenues from the sale of his 

 own produce. On this debit side, too, must 

 be placed the augmented cost of machinery, 

 saddlery, hardware, clothing, etc., which must 

 necessarily ensue from the average 10 per cent, 

 suggested as a tax on manufactured goods. 

 It is difficult in any case to see how our great 

 and increasing industry of dairy farming 

 could be benefited by protective duties, for 

 the nrlk trade, of course, does not suffer 

 from the competition of foreign imports. 



It may, therefore, be doubted whether the 

 actual gains of the farmer from Tariff Reform 



