PROTECTIVE TARIFF

It is estimated that customs receipts for the present fiscal year will exceed $615,000,000, the largest which were ever secured from that source.  The value of our imports for the last fiscal year was $4,466,000,000, an increase of more than 71 per cent since the present tariff law went into effect.  Of these imports about 65 per cent, or, roughly, $2,900,000,000, came in free of duty, which means that the United States affords a duty-free market to other countries almost equal in value to the total imports of Germany and greatly exceeding the total imports of France.  We have admitted a greater volume of free imports than any other country except England.

We are, therefore, levying duties on about $1,550,000,000 of imports.  Nearly half of this, or $700,000,000, is subject to duties for the protection of agriculture and have their origin in countries other than Europe.  They substantially increased the prices received by our farmers for their produce.  About $300,000.000 more is represented by luxuries such as costly rugs, furs, precious stones, etc.  This leaves only about $550,000,000 of our imports under a schedule of duties which is in general under consideration when there is discussion of lowering the tariff.  While the duties on this small portion, representing only about 12 per cent of our imports, undoubtedly represent the difference between a fair degree of prosperity or marked depression to many of our industries and the difference between good pay and steady work or wide unemployment to many of our wage earners, it is impossible to conceive how other countries or our own importers could be greatly benefited if these duties are reduced.  Those who are starting an agitation for a reduction of tariff duties, partly at least for the benefit of those to whom money has been lent abroad, ought to know that there does not seem to be a very large field within the area of our imports in which probable reductions would be advantageous to foreign goods.  Those who wish to benefit foreign producers are much more likely to secure that result by continuing the present enormous purchasing power which comes from our prosperity that increased our imports over 71 per cent in four years than from any advantages that are likely to accrue from a general tariff reduction.

AGRICULTURE

The important place which agriculture holds in the economic and social life of the Nation can not be overestimated.  The National Government is justified in putting forth every effort to make the open country a desirable place to live.  No condition meets this requirement which fails to supply a fair return on labor expended and capital invested.  While some localities and some particular crops furnish exceptions, in general agriculture is continuing to make progress in recovering from the depression of 1921 and 1922.  Animal products and food products