Agriculture And Politics

Our civilizaron rësts upon agriculture. To it every stTong state must look, uot only for bread, but in large ueasure for men who are to uphold its society. We have won and maiutained our institutions in peace and war by the aid of the stnrdy citizens who were born and bred upon farms; therefore it is the first duty of our legislators to take care that the laws do not endanger the prosperity of those who till the soil. The present condition of agriculture in New England shows clearly that the protective tariff is harmful to the interests of the famier. Thirty years ago this part of the United States contained thousands of small farms, whioh are now abandoned. In every neighborhood we see these deserted homesteads falling in mina and their fields returniug to foreste. The traveler in these districts feels that some great plague lias fallen upon the people. Thus in the towns of Tisbury and Chilmark, in Dukes county, Mass., more than three-fifths of the farmsteads of thirty years ago are now deserted. On one tract of 1,200 acres, where formerly stood twenty-two farmhouses, only eight remain, and thegreater part of the h'elds has grown up in brushwood. Several of the New England states have been led to the extraordinary measure of making a census of their abandoned farms, with the hope that f oreigners might be induced to buy them. Although these lists are imperfect, in that they take account only of those places where the houses and fields are still fit for use, the results are startling. They show that the small farmer is rapidly being driven from the land which for centuries had maintained nis forefathers in prosperity. The census of 1890 shows a loss of population in 930 rural towns in New England. One reason why the small farmers have been driven to abandon their fields is found in the fact that the protective tariff greatly increases the expenses of their households. In a family of five persons engaged in farming, and living with strict economy, at least $350 has to be spent for clothing, household uteñsils, farming tools and the materials which are used in repairing buildings and fences. On the average more than fifty dollars of this sum is due to the protective tariff. This tax ia great enough to make a Ufe and death difference in-the struggle of a man who has to depend for bis success on his own strength and the natural resources of a small tract of ordinary New England land. With that amount of money on the right side of his account he can support his family and put by something for his oíd age. Without it he must fail. When the system of the protective tariff was begun the farmers were promised that the manufactories which it would induce would aílord them a high priced market for the pre ucts of their fields. This theory has p ,ved to be utterly in error, except in the case of the market gardens near the great cities which are owned by men of capital and tilled by hired labor, no part of our agriculture has had an3' considerable advantage from the establishment of faetones in New England. It is now made clear by experience, as it is evident 'rom reason, that the price of our soil producís is determined by the market rates of European countries where our surplus is sold. The ■ notion of the advantages of a home market is shown by ;he facts to be fallacious. Instead of jeing a blessing to the small farmer, the ;ariff is a curse which stealthily works :or hia ruin. - Professor N. S. Shaler in New England Tariff Eef orm Almanac. ' In some parts of New Guinea whole owns are built "in the sea." The inlabitants live in constant fear of the rash tribes, and ae a protection against hem construct their houses just off the shore.