The manufacturers can foresee with
almost absolute certainty what the
quantity of their product will he upon
the employment of any given number
hands, and therefore they can combine
whenever (bey choose to limit pro
duction and increase prices; but the
farmer's crop depends almost entirely
upon the character of the season be
may have, and be cannot decide in ad
vance how much h'* must plant in
order to furnish a supply that will not
he in excess of the demand, lie
must sow and reap all he can every
year, and take the risk of reducing the
prices of his own products by over
stocking the markets at home and
abroad. When the seed is sown it
must remain until the crop is gath
ered, and consequently the farmer’s
investment yields hut one return each
year. Hut the output of the manu
facturer is the result of a daily pro
cess; and if he finds that prices are
falling by reason of overproduction, or
for any other reason, he can diminish
or suspend his expenditures until the
market improves.
Notwithstanding these and many
other disadvantages under which the
farmer labors, and which no act of
congress tan remove. Senator Oullom
thinks protection has been more hene
ellcial to him than to any one else; and
he refers to “ the great improvement
in the material welfare of the fanning
and country people” during the last j
thirty or forty years to justify his I
opinion. “ All this comfort and gen-1
oral improvement" he attributes to
protection. Because the farmers, who
own all the cultivated land on a greati
continent, and who had in 1880 j
♦ 12,500,000,tH10 invested in farms, ag
ricultural implements, and live stock.
