THE WESTERN FARMER 



British goods, having to pay 42^ per cent, import duties, 

 could possibly be sent to the United States. The very 

 fact of large imports being poured in, year after year (as 

 shown in table at p. 9, for 1878), in spite of the 42^ per 

 cent, duty for admission, makes it clear that the prices 

 in America must be at least 50 per cent, in excess of those 

 current in England, or else those sendings would leave a 

 loss, and would be discontinued. Those importations, be it 

 noted, are not fitful or intennittent, but are, though fluctu- 

 ating in amount, constant in their recurrence. The con- 

 tinuous overflow, however slight, of a tank is clear evidence 

 of its being full ; and, in the same way, the continuous im- 

 portation of goods burdened with a 42^ per cent, duty is 

 clear evidence that the ordinary prices of such goods in the 

 importing country must keep sufficiently high to make such 

 importations profitable. 



However, to err on the side of caution, we will, instead 

 of 50 per cent, or 42^ per cent., take 40 per cent, as the 

 overcharge which the Western farmers have to pay for 

 the goods which they require to supply their wants. Now, 

 we have shown at p. 9 that their annual expenditure on 

 the supply of those wants amounts in the aggregate to 

 1,400,000,000 dollars. Let us see what proportion of 

 that sum is unnecessarily squandered. If the American 

 farmers were allowed to buy, as they could buy, for 100 

 dollars what they are now compelled to pay 140 dollars 

 for, it is clear that they could buy for 1,000 million dollars 

 what they now pay 1,400 million dollars for, and con- 

 sequently they would save 400,000,000 dollars every year. 

 In other words, by being left free to buy where they could 

 buy cheapest, they would benefit to the extent of 400 

 million of dollars, which they now lose by the operation of 

 the protective duties. 



Truly a startling sum ! A stupendous sum ! That such 

 a pile of wealth should year after year be unnecessarily 

 and wantonly flung away and wasted seems utterly in- 

 credible, and yet it is literally true. " What ! " we can 

 imagine a Western farmer exclaiming, " do you mean to say 



