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 AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 
 BY THOMAS WITHYCOMBE 
 
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 Agricultural Bloc 
 
 ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 
 
 BY THOMAS WITHYCOMBE 
 
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THE 
 AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 
 
 BY THOMAS WITHYCOMBE 
 
 Copyrighted, February 21, 1922. All Rights Reserved. 
 Price Seveny-Five Cents 
 

 fV!A!N L!r^F?ARV..AGR!C(JLTURE DEP 
 
^^ 
 
 DEDICATION 
 
 I dedicate this book to the memory of my 
 beloved mother, Mary A. Withycombe, a 
 very spiritually minded Christian woman 
 who gave up a fine home with cultured en- 
 vironments to bring her four sons and one 
 daughter into a pioneer country, in a for- 
 eign land, where she could see them grow 
 up into business around her, one of whom, 
 James Withycombe, became the Governor 
 of his adopted State, and died during his 
 second term. At a memorial service held 
 for our War Heroes and the Governor at 
 the Oregon State Fair, 1919, Circuit Judge 
 Stapleton said there ought to be another 
 gold star in the flag for the Governor, as 
 the war work brought on his death. George 
 A. White, Adjutant General of Oregon, in 
 writing in The Oregonian of the world war, 
 said some kind things of Governor Withy- 
 combe, as follows : "There was always to be 
 found firmly behind the right the unflinch- 
 ing suport of James Withycombe, then Gov- 
 ernor of Oregon. Not once in all the mobili- 
 zation and later draft did he ask for a 
 single favor or exception, although the 
 power of arbitrary was in his hands and he 
 might have done otherwise. Time and again 
 he was sorely pressed by the insistent pleas 
 of politicians who wanted to traffic in the 
 solemn trust that sends one man's son into 
 battle as the leader of other men's sons. But 
 
2 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 not once did the Governor accede. When his 
 own son, Earle, decided to volunteer for the 
 army. Governor Withycombe sent him to 
 me with a note asking merely that I inform 
 the young man what to do. I sent him to Cap- 
 tain Cicero F. Hogan, in charge of the state's 
 central recruiting station, and Captain Ho- 
 gan enhsted the young man as a private of 
 engineers. The examining surgeon turned 
 down the enlistment because of defective 
 eyesight, but Earle went on to the next re- 
 cruiting station and was passed by the sur- 
 geon there as a private soldier, in which 
 worthy grade he served through the war." 
 
 No incident that might be chosen more 
 clearly measures the rugged honesty of 
 James Withycombe's patriotism and char- 
 acter. Such was the man who held the helm 
 of state throughout Oregon's war emerg- 
 ency. In Governor Withycombe's character 
 is to be found the staunch foundation of 
 justice and fairness that is credited to Ore- 
 gon's early war preparation. 
 
 So every man that received a commission 
 was from the enlisted ranks of Oregon's citi- 
 zen army. In the formation of the new 
 units the captains were elected by their 
 comrades from among the ranks of the new 
 unit and these new captains in turn ap- 
 pointed the lieutenants from the ranks. 
 There can be found no single exception to 
 this procedure. Had it been otherwise — 
 had the leadership of units been political — 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 3 
 
 who can say how much larger Oregon's cas- 
 ualty list would be today ? Certainly a heavy 
 added toll in human life was claimed in the 
 world war by incompetent leadership. Ore- 
 gon has no such murders upon her con- 
 science.. 
 
 Shortly before they sailed for France 
 with the Forty-first Infantry Division late 
 in the fall of '17, one hundred Oregon offi- 
 cers procured a large silver loving cup at 
 the port of debarkation, had engraved upon 
 it the record of their esteem and sent it to 
 Governor Withycombe. I have been told 
 that he treasured this beyond all posses- 
 sions and had it near him when the end 
 came at Salem, soon after the armistice. 
 Some day, doubtless, Oregon will follow the 
 example set by these 100 officers and erect 
 a lasting memorial to that most estimable, 
 honorable and useful citizen, James Withy- 
 combe. 
 
 I have written about the sadly neglected 
 rural economic life of our country for over 
 40 years and having been asked to write a 
 booklet on the subject by some of my friends 
 I have offered this to leave my impressions 
 for others to scan. — Thomas Withycombe. 
 
 Copyright applied for. All rights reserved. 
 Price 75 Cents. 
 
4 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 When I first came to America and our 
 population was only about one-half of what 
 it is today and the amount of lands avail- 
 able for cultivation so immense that any 
 plan of conservation of our fertility seemed 
 almost impossible; but now after 50 years 
 have elapsed and our population has in- 
 creased almost to the point under existing 
 conditions where we consume nearly all our 
 own production of raw materials, we can 
 by a proper adjustment of our tariffs work 
 out a problem of conservation that will im- 
 mensely benefit our country, both socially 
 and financially. The subject is of such an 
 immense area that it will be necessary to 
 take it up in sections. 
 
 The first effort I really made to bring my 
 views to notice was in a letter I read before 
 the late President Roosevelt's Shipping 
 Commission in 1904, of which Senator Gal- 
 lagher of Massachusetts was chairman, 
 which was printed in the report of that 
 commission and is as follows: 
 
 STATEMENT BY THOMAS WITHY- 
 COMBE 
 
 The Chairman — Is there any other gentle- 
 man present who desires to say a word? 
 
 Mr. Withycombe — Mr. Chairman, it may 
 be presumptious for me to address your 
 honorable body. When I was a boy I served 
 as an officer in the English merchant ma- 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY « 
 
 rine. My father emigrated here in 1871, 
 and I transferred my lot to the American 
 merchant marine. Since 1874 I have been 
 engaged in farming. I am here now in the 
 interest of a bounty; that is to say, I take 
 exception to the gentleman who said that 
 our tariff can be reduced. I do not think 
 that can be done with safety. For instance, 
 let us take the Wilson free wool.. We saw 
 how it operated here on this coast. I 
 watched the foreign market and the home 
 market. When the free wool was inaugur- 
 ated Oregon wool was 8 cents per pound 
 below the European market. When the Mc- 
 Kinley 10 cent tariff was put on our wool 
 immediatedy jumped ,8 cents above the 
 European market. Tliat showed the mer- 
 chant in Boston had failed to look after our 
 interest. I think the tariffs helping the 
 United States in very many other instances. 
 I have a very short letter to read. There 
 are two things I think that can not be 
 helped by the tariff under our economics, 
 and they are suffering; these are the ship- 
 ping interest and the wheat. This has 
 worked great hardship on our people. 
 
 Portland, Ore., August 1st, 1904. 
 
 To the Honorable Merchant Marine Com- 
 mission. 
 
 Gentlemen — As you asked for opinions 
 and ideas of how to restore the American 
 
« THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 merchant marine, and having written and 
 talked on that subject for the last fifteen 
 years, I would like to submit a few ideas on 
 the subject. 
 
 The body politic and the human body are 
 in some respects alike. If any part becomes 
 atrophied or vice versa and circulation is 
 not equal, suffering is bound to come.. Al- 
 though I am a loyal Republican, I believe 
 the Republican party has made a terrible 
 blunder, either through ignorance or self- 
 ishness of its men in office in allowing the 
 once grand and numerous American mer- 
 chant shipping to be swept from the face of 
 the seas and on a parallel with the ships, 
 they have committed just such a terrible 
 blunder in not putting an export bounty on 
 wheat. The two are about the only indus- 
 tries that have not been helped by the tar- 
 iff; in fact, the tariff has swept the ships 
 out of existence and reduced the American 
 wheat raiser to abject slavery and acute 
 mental suffering in many instances, for he 
 has seen his farm slip from his own and his 
 posterity's hands to fall into the hands of 
 the hard-working classes of Europe. The 
 pioneer merchant has shared the same fate 
 in many instances, and all this has happened 
 on the most fertile soil the world knows. 
 
 ENGLAND HAS GOT IT BACK 
 
 After the Civil War England had to pay 
 the United States $15,000,000 for allowing 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 7 
 
 the Alabama to fit out; this was for ships 
 that were of no value to us, but since that 
 time the people of America have allowed 
 England to make back that sum a hundred 
 times over by carrying nearly all our for- 
 eign merchandise, all because no wise 
 statesman saw fit to inaugurate a bounty to 
 keep our own merchant marine in exist- 
 ence. We have been used to hearing the ex- 
 pression. What of it? If they can do it 
 cheaper than us, let them do it. Why tax 
 others to do it? 
 
 But does this condition not exist ? The mer- 
 chant marine is taxed out of existence and 
 the American farmer to slavery on account 
 of the tariff If the party will grant a 
 bounty to ships and wheat commensurate 
 with the tariff protection to our other in- 
 dustries, then all classes shall be protected 
 equally and the meaning of our Constitu- 
 tion will have been abided by. The fitting 
 out of those merchant ships will take an im- 
 mense amount of our products from the 
 farm and range and much other trade that 
 we do not get now The land owner will 
 then, through prosperity that would come 
 of that needed bounty, improve the condi- 
 tion of his land and home to such an extent 
 that a trade of at least $500,000,000 a year 
 will be created for our own people. 
 
 The principle followed in the past has 
 
8 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 been sufficient for the day is the evil there- 
 of, whereas it ought to be the God-given in- 
 junction : "Cast thy bread upon the waters 
 and thou shalt find it after many days/' 
 
 THOMAS WITHYCOMBE. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 9 
 
 Gentlemen, how in the world can we make 
 free ships pay? We had the ships after the 
 war and by thousands they rotted at their 
 anchors. If we had them, what good would 
 free ships do us? They would do us no 
 good whatever. 
 
 Representative Humphrey — We have sev- 
 eral on the Sound now tied up. 
 
 Mr Withycombe — I have had experience. 
 If a man would give me a thousand-ton ship 
 today as a free gift and tell me to operate 
 her in the foreign merchant marine under 
 the American flag, I would decline to take 
 her. I would not have her except to sell her 
 or transfer her to the coasting business. If 
 I transferred her to the coasting trade I 
 would make money. I know that to be a 
 fact. 
 
 Recess. 
 
 President Roosevelt saw the need of help- 
 ing the American farmer and he took up 
 the work of correcting some of the means 
 whereby the farmer was being unfairly ex- 
 ploited ; one was fair treatment by the rail- 
 roads; also he forced the meat packers or 
 as it was then known the Beef Trust, to pay 
 the producers of cattle more nearly their 
 share of the worth of the cattle they raised, 
 and that was the first wave of real prosper- 
 ity that spread out over this great country. 
 Before Mr. Roosevelt did that, the banks 
 were becoming insolvent in the best farm- 
 
10 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 ing districts. Immediately when the stock 
 raisers got a fair price for their animals 
 improved farms jumped from $50 and $100 
 per acre up to $150 and $200 per acre, the 
 banks became full of money and the middle 
 west became very prosperous and at pres- 
 ent after 15 years of such prosperity the 
 best farms in the middle west are worth 
 $400 per acre. But at the same time lands 
 further east which had been drained of 
 their fertility in the years previous to Mr. 
 Roosevelt's help are still depleted and al- 
 most worthless. Under our existing condi- 
 tions, it is only the lands containing virgin 
 fertility that have become high priced. 
 
 What is necessary for our national pros- 
 perity is to extend the system of protection 
 to all our raw materials so that a fair mar- 
 gin of profit will remain to the grower with 
 which he can build up the fertility of those 
 exhausted lands. I will now insert a copy 
 of another letter I read before President 
 Roosevelt's Country Commission, of which 
 Dr Bailey was the chairman 
 
 To the Honorable Country Commission 
 
 1906) 
 
 One of the greatest crimes in the history 
 of the world has been committed against 
 the American farmer 
 
 This is a severe arraignment, but a great 
 wrong needs it. Secretary of Agriculture 
 Wilson has made a statement that the 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY ll 
 
 American farmers, who constitute only 35 
 per cent of our population or about 25 mil- 
 lion of souls, have produced in the last 10 
 years wealth equal to one-half of the total 
 wealth of our great commonwealth's pro- 
 duction in three centuries. Yet the Ameri- 
 can farmer has not been allowed to enjoy 
 the fruits of his labor. 
 
 The products of his farm have been taken 
 by the speculator, railroad and other cor- 
 porations to become wealthy upon, and he 
 has been allowed to suffer most acutely. 
 His crops and herds have been filched out 
 of his hands, and he has not been allowed 
 to have anything near his share of its 
 worth to our great nation. 
 
 But God in His providence has raised up 
 for us President Roosevelt, who is thor- 
 oughly imbued with the spirit of Christ, and 
 who is working hard to lift up the op- 
 pressed and to bind up the broken hearted. 
 
 One of the most cruel measures enacted 
 against the American farmer is to force 
 him to pay for protected labor, machinery, 
 in fact, everything he makes use of, and 
 force him to pay for it with the price of a 
 free trade bushel of wheat. The American 
 merchant marine has been wiped out of ex- 
 istence from the same conditions. This 
 seems to any reasonable person an act of 
 tyranny that so far exceeds the cruelty of 
 the Egyptians to the children of Israel 
 when they forced them to make bricks 
 
12 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 without straw, that the latter wrong sinks 
 into insignificance when arrayed alongside 
 the first mentioned, for the American farm- 
 er could soon devise a way to make bricks 
 without straw, but he has found it impossi- 
 ble to pay for protected labor and buy pro- 
 tected everything with the money received 
 for a free trade bushel of wheat. Experi- 
 ence again and again has taught us that 
 protection is our watchword. We saw how 
 free wool was nearly the entire destruction 
 of our sheep industry. Free cattle made 
 bankrupt thousands of cattlemen. Under 
 the McKinley law in 1890 with a duty of $10 
 per head the cattle business flourished, but 
 in 1894 when the tariff was reduced to 20 
 per cent ad valorem. Representative Noo- 
 nan of Texas before the Ways and Means 
 Committee of the 54th Congress, January 
 5th, 1897, said the present tariff has prac- 
 tically placed horses, cattle, sheep and goats 
 on the free list, and it has resulted in great 
 loss to the breeders of stock, many of v^^hom 
 have been bankrupted. Numerous ranches 
 have been abandoned or have gone into de- 
 cay and milhons of acres of good grazing 
 lands are unused and the grass wasted be- 
 cause the business does not justify stock- 
 men in raising animals for market at pres- 
 ent rates. As a consequence all their indus- 
 tries are languishing from the effects of 
 Mexican competition. Nearly half a million 
 of cattle have been imported from Mexico 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 13 
 
 into the United States since the repeal of 
 the McKinley law. 
 
 Placing hides on the free list in 1872 
 caused a great hardship to the stockmen 
 without any benefit to the leather user. 
 
 On January 1st of this year our farm ani- 
 mals were valued at $3,675,389,442 as com- 
 pared with a valuation of $1,655,414,612 on 
 January 1st, 1897, the last year of the Gor- 
 man-Wilson tariff. 
 
 This is achieved with only partial protec- 
 tion of the farmer. If the Federal Govern- 
 ment will protect the farmer's bushel of 
 wheat equally with the protection granted 
 the other industries, then the farmer will 
 be relieved of one of the worst oppressions 
 ever imposed on a civilized race of people. 
 I write this not in the spirit of selfishness, 
 for I raise no wheat to sell. I raise products 
 that are protected and which bring a good 
 price, but I know that wheat is the unit of 
 value of every article raised on the farm 
 to a certain extent, and if an export bounty 
 of 25 cents per bushel were paid the farmer 
 for every bushel of wheat exported and a 
 commission appointed to see that the farm- 
 er, and not the shipper, received that 
 bounty, then the products of the farm would 
 be increased in value to the amount of 25 
 per cent, or in round numbers our wheat 
 would be worth $150,000,000 more than at 
 present, our corn $300,000,000; hay $150,- 
 000,000 oats $75,000,000; potatoes $30,000,- 
 
14 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 000; barley $12,000,000, or in all on these 
 crops $717,000,000. This money would mean 
 a clear profit to the American farmer which 
 he would have to spend in trade, building 
 roads, churches, schools and beautifying 
 our great and glorious country. This sum 
 would mean at least three bilHons of dollars 
 of internal trade for our own people more 
 than they get at present. Our cities are at 
 present to a very great extent being built 
 at the expense of the country. Then our 
 cities would grow indescribably beautiful 
 as the cause of natural wealth flowing from 
 the country into them. 
 
 Our total foreign trade in exports for 
 1905: 
 
 $523,000,000 to England, 
 
 $194,000,000 to Germany, 
 
 $141,000,000 to Canada, 
 
 $ 76,000,000 to France, 
 
 $ 53,000,000 to China. 
 
 $ 73,000,000 to Netherlands, 
 
 $ 52,000,000 to Japan, 
 
 $ 46,000,000 to Mexico, or $1,148,000,000. 
 
 Our imports were : 
 $176,000,000 from England, 
 $118,000,000 from Germany, 
 $ 62,000,000 from Canada, 
 $ 90,000,000 from France, 
 $100,000,000 from Brazil, 
 $ 86,000,000 from Cuba, a total of $632,- 
 000,000, or a total of $2,112,000,000. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 15. 
 
 We export only 200,000,000 bushels of 
 wheat, which at 25 cents export bounty 
 would only cost the Federal Government 
 $50,000,000, or just one-third of the amount 
 paid in pensions to the war veterans. Yet 
 it would accrue an addition of $3,000,000,000 
 of trade to our own people, a sum more than 
 equal to the amount of all our foreign im- 
 port and export trade. 
 
 We owe it to our country's welfare to see 
 that this just relief is granted the American 
 farmer, as under present conditions we are 
 reducing our country to a barren waste as 
 fast as we possibly can, as there are whole 
 counties of abandoned farms in some of our 
 once best agricultural states, but under the 
 fostering care and protection our lands 
 would receive, if the needed relief was 
 granted the farmer, our lands would be in- 
 creased in value threefold, which would 
 mean added wealth to our nation that would 
 reach into several billions of dollars. 
 
 In comparing values here and in England 
 we may get a good idea. In the city of New 
 York land value that is worth $1000 a foot 
 frontage, the same kind of property in the 
 city of London is only worth $400 per foot 
 frontage. Agricultural land that here is 
 worth $50 per acre, in England is worth 
 $150 per acre. 
 
 The English farmer gets $1.00 for a 
 bushel of wheat. The English baker retails 
 that bushel of wheat in the form of bread 
 
16 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 to the consumer for $1.50. The American 
 farmer gets 70 cents for his bushel of 
 wheat; the American baker retails that 
 bushel of wheat in the form of bread for 
 $3.00. Between the English farmer's price 
 and the consumer of the bread there is 
 50 cents per bushel. Between the American 
 farmer's price and the consumer of the 
 bread there is $2.30 per bushel. This dif- 
 ference to a certain extent corresponds to 
 the inequality of the land values in city and 
 country in the two countries. 
 
 England's wealth is in her lands. She 
 sends her ships to the remotest corners of 
 the earth for all the fertilizer she can pro- 
 cure. We are forcing our farmers in a 
 great measure to reduce our lands to pov- 
 erty, and it behooves us to see that this 
 wasteful method stops before it is too late, 
 or before we reach the 200,000,000 popula- 
 tion mark we may be confronted with fam- 
 ine. Our lands should be owned by intelli- 
 gent and scientific agriculturists and not 
 mere tillers of the soil. Of the thousands 
 of young men who are educated in our 
 Agricultural Colleges a very small per cent 
 ever return to the farm ; the inducements of- 
 fered elsewhere are better. With an export 
 bounty of 25 cents per bushel on wheat this 
 would change. I have traveled all over the 
 world and one of the most beautiful sights 
 I have seen is in the city of Portland — to 
 see the Jewish people riding in the finest 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 17 
 
 carriages, dressed in the most costly cloth- 
 ing and wearing the richest furs and jewel- 
 ry, living in the finest houses and taking the 
 most prominent places in finance and muni- 
 cipal government of the city. This is as it 
 should be, for we got the best things we 
 ever got from the Jews — ^namely, Christ and 
 the Bible. And the fact that they can rise 
 to their opportunities is a proof of the lib- 
 erty granted to American citizenship inde- 
 pendent of nationality. 
 
 One of the saddest sights I have beheld is 
 to see the grand old pioneers who braved 
 hardships to come here and who hewed out 
 fine homes by hard work and industry. 
 Those fine people, a race typical of Western 
 America only, those uncles and aunties of 
 pioneer times, whose latchstrings were al- 
 ways out, the passing of whom will leave 
 ne plus ultra. When foreign competition 
 drove the bushel of wheat so low in price, it 
 vitiated their very existence, drove them 
 from their homes and their children from 
 their heritage. In many instances the hired 
 man owns the farm. 
 
 The Eastern manufacturing centers have 
 taken from the agricultural districts of the 
 United States an unjust proportion of 
 wealth, and all classes have suffered in the 
 agricultural districts with the farmer. The 
 East owes the West millions of dollars. An 
 export bounty of 25 cents on a bushel of 
 wheat will bring about the only equitable 
 
18 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 adjustment. The farmers of the Middle 
 West have organized a Society in Equity to 
 force wheat to one dollar. This is illegal ac- 
 cording to Federal laws. The Federal Gov- 
 ernment should come to the farmers' aid. 
 THOMAS WITHYCOMBE. 
 
 The following are letters I received from 
 gentlemen to whom I sent this communica- 
 tion to ask their opinions: First one from 
 late Honorable J. Gaston, and is as follows: 
 
 Aug. 17th, 1906. 
 Mr. Thos. Withycombe, 
 Hamilton Bldg., 
 Portland. 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 I have read with great interest and atten- 
 tion your very able paper on the value and 
 importance of an export duty on wheat, and 
 now herewith return the same with my 
 thanks for giving me the pleasure of read- 
 ing this expression of your views. 
 
 It seems to me very important that you 
 bring this matter before the people for dis- 
 cussion by either publishing it in the Daily 
 and Weekly Oregonian, or printing it in 
 pamphlet form for general distribution 
 among intelligent farmers. These reforms 
 move slowly, and won't move at all without 
 public opinion to push them. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 J. Gaston. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 19 
 
 Following is a letter received from the 
 late Honorable Judge T. G. Hailey: 
 
 State of Oregon Supreme Court, 
 Salem, August 31st, 1906. 
 
 Mr. Thos. Withycombe, 
 Room 8, Hamilton Bldg., 
 Portland, Oregon. 
 
 Dear Mr. Withycombe : 
 
 Enclosed herewith I return your article 
 in behalf of the wheat grower, which I have 
 read with interest and which contains much 
 of value, but I can hardly agree with you 
 upon your remedy for farmers' ills.. I think 
 there are other means by which the farmer 
 can receive benefits than giving him a 
 bounty from the government The publica- 
 tion, however, of your article would doubt- 
 less awaken the interest of many people 
 who have not thought of the matter, and it 
 is only by litigation of such matters that 
 good results can be obtained, and I think it 
 would be well for you to give the matter 
 some publicity as it might result in good to 
 the farmer and good to the farmer means 
 good to everybody * * * 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 T. J. Hailey. 
 
 In April, 1908, the Oregonian printed the 
 following letter: 
 
20 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 Portland, Oregon, April 9th, 1908. 
 To the Editor: 
 
 The Oregonian in many respects stands 
 pre-eminently in the advance of modern 
 newspapers, but in some things I believe it 
 to be grossly in error; in this morning's edi- 
 torial it says wheat has dropped two cents 
 in Chicago, and says. Oh where, oh where is 
 the American Society of Equity, etc. A say- 
 ing much endorsed is, "The voice of the 
 people is the voice of God," and the Ameri- 
 can farmer is asking relief; surely he needs 
 it ; under our present system we are slowly 
 and surely reducing our great and glorious 
 country to a state of exhaustion and fam- 
 ine, and it behooves our statesmen to sit up 
 and take notice before it is too late. Only 
 a short time ago the Oregonian printed a 
 letter from a gentleman who had lately re- 
 turned from the East, saying farms were 
 so exhausted in the once best districts that 
 they were being practically abandoned. 
 Protection is America's Banner of Onward 
 and Upward progress. And non-protection 
 is the retrograde that brings her to a point 
 of degeneracy. The American people live 
 on a higher plane than the balance of the 
 nations of the earth and protection is the 
 only thing that makes that possible, but in 
 justness and righteousness of Christian 
 Equity all classes ought to be treated equal- 
 ly ; but the American merchant marine has 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 21 
 
 been wiped out of existence because our 
 statesmen failed to protect it and American 
 ship owners have become citizens of France 
 and are building up the French merchant 
 marine under the protection of the French 
 ship subsidy. Twenty years ago only an 
 occasional French ship came here, all were 
 British bottoms. Several times this winter 
 the majority of the ships en route and here 
 were flying the French flag and instead of 
 breaking up the French nation they have 
 become the bankers of the world. If ships 
 and agriculture were to receive the same 
 protection that iron and steel does, the 
 wealth of our great nation would be in- 
 creased bilHons of dollars and the farmer 
 instead of being scoffed at, a shrivelled so- 
 cially, shunned creature, would expand into 
 a cultured and much sought after compan- 
 ion. It would bring us beautiful cities and 
 rural districts and instead of exhausting 
 our wealth would make it more productive. 
 When we were in the throes of a panic in 
 the nineties through the low price of farm 
 products, the Hawaiian Islands under the 
 blessings of reciprocity with the United 
 States and consequently having the benefit 
 of protected sugar, sugar stock was selling 
 300 above par and the Hawaiians were able 
 to place 75 to 100 dollars' worth of our fer- 
 tilizers on one acre of land at one appHca- 
 tion, at the same time the American farmer 
 could not afford to use 15c worth. 
 
22 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 To explain my views fully would take up 
 too much space in your valuable paper and 
 tire your readers, but I will say in conclu- 
 sion, for years my heart has longed to see 
 the American farmer and his noble wife 
 and family put on a plane with the rest of 
 this great nation. Putting on a high pro- 
 tected tariff without putting on a gradu- 
 ated income tax is like building a steam 
 engine without a safety valve, and when- 
 ever I read of Mr. Carnegie^s and J. D. 
 Rockefeller's magnificent gifts, I want to 
 know why they are allowed to bestow this 
 wealth according to their own whims which 
 rightly belongs to the American people at 
 large. 
 
 Thomas Withycombe. 
 Feb. 20th, 1920. 
 
 The present administration has succeeded 
 in having the income tax instituted, and 
 that is high above every other measure in- 
 augurated by the administration. The late 
 beloved Theodore Roosevelt tried his level 
 best to get the income tax inaugurated but 
 failed. William Jennings Bryan said Mr. 
 Roosevelt was stealing his thunder, but the 
 difference between Mr. Bryan's income tax 
 and Theodore Roosevelt's income tax was 
 very wide. If Mr. Bryan had been elected 
 with his free trade schemes there would 
 have been no incomes to tax. 
 
 Fifty years ago Senator Hatch of New 
 England saw agriculture was declining, and 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 23 
 
 he succeeded in getting the Hatch Fund 
 started for Schools of Agriculture, and to- 
 day we have the finest and most elaborate 
 Agricultural Colleges in the world, and yet 
 agriculture has been steadily declining and 
 our country from the Atlantic to the Mis- 
 sissippi is practically exhausted, and the 
 high protection of manufactures for the 
 cities as against practically free trade for 
 our products of the farm has so concen- 
 trated our wealth in the cities that the city 
 of New York alone has the same assessed 
 value as the seven Western States of Ore- 
 gon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, 
 Colorado and California. 
 
 At the same time in the State of New 
 York are thousands of beautiful farms 
 abandoned, and thousands can be bought 
 for less than half of what the buildings cost 
 and that condition exists even up to the 
 Mississippi River. The farmers always were 
 loyal to the Republican party, because it is 
 the only party that has brought them any 
 degree of prosperity. Besides our fine Agri- 
 cultural Colleges, the Grange, Farmer's 
 Union, American Society in Equity and sev- 
 eral other organizations have attempted to 
 lift our rural life and have been completely 
 baffled. When the Grange first started 
 when I was just out of my teens, in 1871, 
 they undertook to take into their hands the 
 selling direct to the consumer and buying 
 direct from the wholesaler, and they forced 
 
24 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 bankruptcy on their best friends, the store- 
 keeper and his family, who had even shared 
 their hardships with them, and were made 
 the goat; but they were soon glad to come 
 back to the storekeeper and ask him to set 
 things again on a trade basis, and the 
 Grange settled down to a quiet, ethical and 
 social institution. Then the American So- 
 ciety of Equity sprang up and undertook to 
 deal direct to the consumer and buy direct 
 from wholesaler, but they ran up against 
 the same snag and were glad to ask the old 
 line business men to pull their chestnuts out 
 of the fire for them. Lately another lot of 
 agitators have persuaded the farmers to 
 form a political party called the Non-Parti- 
 san League to take over all business out of 
 the hands of the regular dealer, and already 
 we are hearing the farmer say they have 
 found out that they have jumped from the 
 frying pan into the fire. I cannot help 
 thinking if we had such statesmen as our 
 great George Washington or Abraham 
 Lincoln contemporary with such a condi- 
 tion they would have set our national eco- 
 nomic condition in order. One thing we 
 know our beloved late Theodore Roosevelt 
 started to do the thing and got all the in- 
 formation together ready to take up the 
 question when he was superseded by a 
 party who was diametrically opposed to his 
 efforts. I was pleased to see an article 
 printed in one of our daily papers from a 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 25 
 
 speech uttered by Major Leonard Wood, 
 who was always an admirer of Theodore 
 Roosevelt and his ideals, as follows, in the 
 Oregonian : Farm Decline Menaces. Wood 
 Advocated Protection to Agriculture. State- 
 ment Declared Most Candid Attitude Any 
 Presidential Candidate Ever Took. Chi- 
 cago, III, Feb. 17.— (Special.) — The need of 
 measures destined to correct the decline of 
 agriculture in the United States were em- 
 phasized today in a statement by Major 
 General Wood, candidate for presidential 
 nominee on the Republican ticket. Political 
 leaders who read Major General Wood's 
 statement this afternoon pronounced it the 
 most far-reaching and candid attitude on 
 agricultural problems that any candidate 
 for president has yet adopted. 
 
 The decline in agriculture is one of the 
 greatest dangers to our civilization, Major 
 General Wood declared. The farmer has a 
 right to expect from every national admin- 
 istration the biggest sort of co-operation 
 and encouragement. He makes up a third 
 of our entire population and is the back- 
 bone of the nation. He must be given a 
 square deal and I propose to see he gets 
 it if ever it lies within my power to act in 
 his behalf. 
 
 Salient points in Major General Wood's 
 statement were: 
 
 "The farmer sacrificed much during the 
 war. We owe him a debt of gratitude. 
 
26 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 "Education for farm children should be 
 as easily accessible and on as high a plane 
 as that of city children. 
 
 "We must give the rural districts good 
 roads. 
 
 "There must be a department of agricul- 
 ture in full and intelligent co-operation with 
 the farmer and the great farm organiza- 
 tions. 
 
 "Hoarding of food supplies should be 
 rigorously suppressed. 
 
 "Secure provision should be made to en- 
 able the farmers to get adequate credit to 
 extend farming interests." 
 
 William Jennings Bryan in describing 
 what the Democratic platform would stand 
 for said : "1 think it safe to say the party 
 will declare against a return to the protec- 
 tive tariff. This is very misleading. We 
 know the product of the farms are free, that 
 is, wheat, oats, barley, corn, beef, butter, 
 eggs, wool but there is a 35 per cent import 
 duty on manufactures. This is a rank in- 
 justice to the American f armer.'^ 
 
 I will insert another letter of mine pub- 
 lished in the Oregonian. 
 
 Portland Ore. April 17th, 1908. 
 
 To the Editor: 
 
 In this morning's Oregonian in an edi- 
 torial citing the low rates granted Amer- 
 ican shippers in foreign ships, it certainly 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 27 
 
 is astonishing, but that does not advance 
 the correct position for America to take. As 
 long as our best customer, Great Britain, 
 who takes from 500 million to nearly one 
 billion dollars' worth of our produce, and 
 from whom we take less than 200 million 
 dollars' worth annually was carrying the 
 goods, it helped make the principles of reci- 
 procity possible between the two countries, 
 but now under the subsidy the French Gov- 
 ernment is giving her merchant marine, a 
 large part of our carrying trade goes to a 
 country that only takes about 80 million 
 dollars' worth of our produce and of whom, 
 we take 100 million dollars; the trade bal- 
 ance is greatly augmented in France's fa- 
 vor. And because the foreign merchant 
 man carry freight from Portland to China 
 75 cents per ton cheaper than the American 
 ships can carry it to San Francisco from 
 Portland does not signify that we ought to 
 let the foreigner have it, unless he was 
 granting us some return reciprocity. The 
 Oregonian has had a little experience on 
 that line. The Daily Journal has been sold 
 on the streets at two cents per copy, which 
 every one believes to be at a loss under the 
 principles of high protection. The leading 
 daily papers in the city of London, Eng- 
 land, are now sold for one cent per copy on 
 the street. Would the Oregonian thrive 
 brought into competition? No, not any 
 more than the American merchant ship 
 
28 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 ov/ner has been able to compete with the 
 freight of free trade and subsidy fed ships. 
 The idea of allowing America to have her 
 ships built in foreign countries is unpatri- 
 otic. We have the men and the material 
 and we ought to do the work ourselves. 
 
 The pound loaf of bread is sold in Eng- 
 land after the wheat has been transported 
 from Portland, Oregon, there, at the low 
 price of 214 cents per pound loaf. This is 
 under free trade. Whereas the pound loaf 
 of bread in the city of Portland is sold for 
 5 cents — this is under protected tariff — but 
 the scale of civilization in America is pro- 
 portionately 100 per cent higher than it is 
 in England, and protection is the cause of 
 it. Do we want to retrograde? God forbid 
 — let us go higher, 
 
 Thomas Withycomuo. 
 
 Another letter I sent to the Evening Tele- 
 gram might be of interest to my readers. 
 
 Portland, Oregon, Jan. 10. 1919. 
 
 The problem of placing our returned sol- 
 diers and sailors in profitable occupation is 
 now of great interest to every one, and in 
 this line I realize there is a great work to be 
 done. We must advance ; we cannot go back 
 to the old pre-war conditions and be safe. 
 
 It is time for every true American citizen 
 to give up working mainly for self and 
 selfish interest and to see to the well-being 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 29 
 
 of his neighbor. When I was a boy I went 
 to school in France and many times have 
 I inscribed my name on beautiful crumbling 
 Grecian columns covered with moss and 
 ivy, the relics of once beautiful mansions 
 owned by the wealthy patrician class. But 
 the peasant class became so abjectly poor 
 and without homes that the French Revolu- 
 tion broke forth with an awful fury, and 
 these wealthy land owners were slain with 
 the guillotine, the land became divided in 
 small holdings and the largest portion of 
 France became tillers of the soil or agricul- 
 turists and ever since that abandonment of 
 the law of primogenitor caused by the revo- 
 lution the land has been subdivided into 
 very small holdings and the very tenacious 
 way the French people fought for France 
 during this war is partly because nearly 
 every soldier was interested in a small piece 
 of land that was his own home. We hear 
 of people wanting to place our returned sol- 
 diers on the land either on reclaimed land 
 by irrigation or cleared off stump land or 
 large holdings bought by the government 
 and parcelled out to the returned soldiers 
 and sailors 
 
 But here is a great problem to solve : The 
 people already on the land are not nearly 
 as prosperous as they should be, and in 
 spite of the fact that the Hatch Bill was 
 passed about 45 years ago with a view of 
 improving the condition of our farmers, the 
 
30 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 land has steadily become depleted until 
 more than 20 million acres of lands are 
 abandoned and beautiful houses and farm 
 buildings are going into decay with no 
 other occupants than the rats and mice. 
 
 I will give a few illustrations of condi- 
 tions as they have come to my notice. A 
 neighbor of mine who came from Ithaca, 
 New York, several years ago, went back a 
 few years ago on a visit. I questioned him 
 regarding conditions in the country around 
 there. He said he had a cousin who owned 
 a 100-acre farm and said when he first left 
 Ithica it was worth $100 per acre, but when 
 he returned on a visit he was trying to sell 
 it at $8.00 per acre and could not. He said 
 he went down to Lake Cayuga to visit a 
 cousin who owned a fine 200-acre farm. He 
 said his cousin told him he used to raise the 
 finest of crops and lots of cattle and horses 
 on his farm; that he had tried to build up 
 the fertility of his land ; had spent $30 per 
 acre for fertilizers but the prices he realized 
 for his produce would not pay for artificial 
 fertilizers so he had to give up farming his 
 land and all he could do was to graze a few 
 sheep on his once fertile 200-acre farm. 
 
 Another friend of mine went back on a 
 visit to his old home in Maine, and it was 
 occupied by his brother. He had just had 
 bad luck and lost his house by fire, and he 
 asked him when he was going to build a 
 new house. He said he would not build a 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 31 
 
 new house because he could buy the adjoin- 
 ing farm with a good house on it and get 
 the farm buildings and all for half what it 
 would cost to build a new house. 
 
 Another friend of mine had sold his farm 
 in Washington county, Oregon, and took it 
 into his head to go back East and look over 
 the abandoned farm situation. He was so 
 well impressed with a beautiful farm in 
 New York State and the low price he could 
 buy it for that he bought it and ordered his 
 things shipped out from Oregon, but in the 
 meantime while waiting for his things to 
 arrive he found out the conditions of the 
 adjoining farms. He never unloaded his 
 things but had them shipped back to Ore- 
 gon and his farm stands there without an 
 occupant. 
 
 I write these items into this article to il- 
 lustrate what I want to convey to the minds 
 . of my readers. I find out whenever I speak 
 on this subject my hearers let their minds 
 go to purely local conditions and think of 
 the people who are living on the most fav- 
 ored spots of production. We know of wheat 
 raisers in Eastern Oregon and Eastern 
 Washington's best sections who are im- 
 mensely wealthy by wheat raising, also we 
 know of sheep men and cattle men who are 
 favorably situated who have become im- 
 mensely wealthy. 
 
 Returning again to France, the dividing 
 of the land into such small holdings has not 
 
32 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 placed France is such a prosperous condi- 
 tion as it would be if the holdings were 
 larger. The amount of capital used in the 
 operation of such small holdings does not 
 admit of the highest state of production, 
 and France with her 20 million acres of 
 wheat lands far superior as regards soil and 
 climate only averages about 17 bushels of 
 wheat per acre, whereas Great Britain with 
 her larger units and consequently more 
 available cash for operating expenses aver- 
 ages about 33 bushels per acre. Under our 
 present conditions of protection on manu- 
 factures while all our raw materials are 
 practically on a free trade basis, I feel sure 
 is the cause of our depletion of soil fertility 
 and if the Federal Government would put 
 on an adequate protection on agricultural 
 production, it would become a very easy 
 matter to place all our returning soldiers 
 and sailors in very profitable positions. 
 
 By way of illustration I will quote a few 
 conditions. Take the suit of clothing I 
 wear. As a farmer in the United States I 
 have to produce and sell 15 raw materials 
 to buy this one suit, whereas in France or 
 England I should only have to produce and 
 sell five raw materials to buy one of these 
 suits. 
 
 Instead of the American farmer getting 
 an average of 25 cents per pound for his 
 grease wool he should get 50 cents per 
 pound for it. Then he would only have to 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 33 
 
 produce and sell eight raw materials to buy 
 one of these suits. And take Oregon alone, 
 she would soon have 10 millions of sheep 
 instead of only two millions at present, and 
 the cost of the suit to the purchaser would 
 only need be increased 7 per cent of $3.00. 
 
 Take the loaf of bread. Under ordinary 
 conditions the American farmer has to pro- 
 duce and sell the raw materials for five 
 loaves of bread to be able to buy one loaf, 
 whereas in England and France the farmer 
 only has to produce and sell one and two- 
 thirds raw materials to buy one loaf. If 
 the Federal Government would place a $30 
 per ton import duty and also a $30 per ton 
 export bounty on wheat the American 
 farmer would become immensely prosper- 
 ous and all those depleted, worn out farms 
 would soon be refertilized and made worth 
 $300 per acre, but Federal control of the 
 farmer would be necessary. All large hold- 
 ings should be sold to the government at a 
 fair assessed value and sold in 100-acre 
 tracts or more to bonafide farmers. All 
 the farmers should be forced to go on a 
 four year's rotation, that is to say, they 
 should not be allowed to put their land into 
 wheat only once in four years; then under 
 the stimulus of a $2 bushel permanent price 
 for wheat and everything else in proportion 
 we should have 60 milHons of people on the 
 land as against 30 millions at present. The 
 immigration laws would have to be made 
 
34 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 very stringent as nearly half the capital- 
 istic classes of Europe would want to come 
 to the United States of America. To make 
 a long story short, let me illustrate the re- 
 turns of the average 100-acre farm in the 
 Willamette Valley now as compared to what 
 it would be under that needed protection on 
 raw materials. 
 
 100 acres at present : 
 
 30 acres in wheat, yield 16 bushels, 
 
 at $1 per bushel $ 480.00 
 
 30 acres in oats, yield 40 bushels, 
 
 at 40c per bushel 480.00 
 
 10 acres in hay for working stock 
 10 acres in grain for working stock 
 20 acres in miscellaneous crops at 
 $30 per acre 600.00 
 
 $1560.00 
 Contra expenses: 
 
 Taxes $ 75.00 
 
 Casual labor 300.00 
 
 Repairs 400.00 
 
 $775.00 $ 785.00 
 
 Living and clothing for family of seven 
 persons, or $112.04 each. 
 
 Conditions that would exist if proper pro- 
 tection were put on raw materials : 
 
 100 acres in Willamette Valley: 
 25 acres in wheat, yield 40 bushels, 
 
 at $2 $2000.00 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 35 
 
 25 acres in oats, yield 60 bushels, 
 at $1 1500.00 
 
 25 acres in animal husbandry at 
 100 per 2500.00 
 
 23 acres in miscellaneous crops, at 
 100 2300.00 
 
 2 acres for hired men 
 
 $8300.00 
 
 Contra expenses: 
 
 Taxes $ 300.00 
 
 2 hired men by the year 
 
 with one acre of land, 
 
 with good cottage 
 
 each, cow, chickens, 
 
 hogs, each $1000 per 
 
 year 2000.00 
 
 Fertilizers 2000.00 
 
 Cost of work horses' 
 
 keep 600.00 
 
 Repairs 1000.00 
 
 $5900.00 
 Balance of $2400 for family of seven peo- 
 ple, or $342.86 each. 
 
 Twelve people in farm cottage each with 
 $166.66 would be better off than the farm 
 owner under the present system of one- 
 sided protection. 
 
 Look at Cuba. With favorable conditions 
 see the amount of wealth per capita. It has 
 made my heart ache so these many years to 
 
36 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 see the poor clothing the American people 
 have worn, especially the poor farmers' 
 families as a rule. They have shivered in 
 poor cotton cloth when they ought to have 
 the finest all wool clothing. 
 
 The automatic destruction of America's 
 once grand merchant marine and no one to 
 help because people object to subsidies or 
 bounty when in fact the import tariffs were 
 subsidies and bounties pure and simple, only 
 called another name. 
 
 The cause of the Agricultural Bloc in the 
 Senate and House this A. D. 1921 began 50 
 years ago and has taken all this time to 
 assert itself.. The action of excluding aliens 
 has been made necessary because of the 
 wrong economic conditions. Labor has been 
 made master of the land, whereas with the 
 proper protection labor would be greatly in 
 demand steadily without any vacation and 
 farm labor would be hired by the year. (It 
 ought to be done. It can be done. It should 
 be done.) 
 
 Jan. 1st, 1922. 
 
 Had agriculture received the same pro- 
 tection that manufacturers did when the 
 tariffs were put on, the United States today 
 would be worth 200 bilhons of dollars more 
 than now and have a population of 200 mil- 
 lions of people, happy, contented and pros- 
 perous. One-sided protection has created 
 suspicion and distrust between the city and 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 37 
 
 rural population and has been the cause of 
 co-operative societies for self protection by 
 the rural class which have not protected, 
 and never can do much good till agriculture 
 stands on the same plane as manufactures. 
 The Man of Gallilee who said whosoever 
 giveth one of these little ones a cup of cold 
 water in My name receiveth his reward. 
 How shall this great nation carry out that 
 Divine injunction? By dividing its people 
 into two classes the patrician or city rich by 
 protection and the plebian or country poor 
 by non-protection. We hear of universal 
 peace. The carrying out of the above in- 
 junction both in spirit and letter will only 
 bring permanent peace to any nation and 
 finally the world. We saw the utterly self- 
 ish and cold indifference to the suffering 
 world by the idle rich during the World 
 war. It was only the noble minds of Amer- 
 ica made so by the constant battle with the 
 errors of our surroundings that came to the 
 call for help. We should wake up and see 
 where we are drifting. The Roman Empire 
 broke when opulence smashed it. Let every 
 American citizen learn what it means to 
 give a cup of cold water to one of these 
 little ones in His name. It reaches into the 
 highest places of state and right away 
 along the line to the lowest branch of Amer- 
 ican citizenship. Any American citizen 
 who works for selfish interest, either per- 
 sonally or politically, is an enemy to lasting 
 
38 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 peace. Selfishness brought on the French 
 Revolution, the American Revolution, the 
 Russian Revolution, They all came very 
 slov^ly and gradually, but they came. Let 
 us profit by the past and make for our beau- 
 tiful America a glorious future. We are 
 dissipating the wealth of our arid lands 
 that rightfully belongs to our posterity. 
 These lands would hold their latent wealth 
 for generations if the water was kept off of 
 it. The lands already under cultivation have 
 lost billions of dollars' worth of fertility by 
 erosion through poor methods of agricul- 
 ture. The rich Red River Valley has lost 
 millions by erosion. The Willamette Valley 
 has lost equally as much. The reason of 
 such deplorable waste is found in the in- 
 equitable tariff protection to our manufac- 
 ture and to the production of raw materials. 
 The import duty imposed on imported goods 
 is a bounty on American labor and Amer- 
 ican manufactures, and although it is very 
 evident such tariffs are absolutely neces- 
 sary to keep up the standard of American 
 life, the protective party has been sadly re- 
 miss in not putting on corresponding export 
 bounties on raw materials which we export 
 to other countries in competition with the 
 cheap labor, and thereby forcing our pro- 
 ducers to sell free trade raw material to 
 protected interests. 
 
 Let me illustrate. We have 35 cents per 
 bushel protection on wheat and we export 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 39 
 
 wheat in competition with the world; that 
 35 cents tariff excludes any wheat from 
 coming in, but it does not raise the price of 
 wheat to the American farmer; it is only a 
 margin created for the speculator to gamble 
 upon, and several times capitalists have 
 tried to corner it and put that margin in 
 their own coffers. If a corresponding 35 
 cents export bounty were also placed on the 
 wheat then the price would immediately be 
 raised up 35 cents per bushel to the Amer- 
 ican farmer. 
 
 The same way with cotton. An import 
 duty of 10 cents per pound ; and also a cor- 
 responding export bounty, because we ex- 
 port cotton in competition with the low paid 
 labor of other countries, it is necessary to 
 put on a corresponding export bounty to 
 raise the price to the American grower. See 
 what Representative Aswell, Democrat for 
 Louisiana, said in the House of Representa- 
 tives, Washington, D. C. He said the South- 
 ern farmer would not consent longer to toil 
 12 months a year in the cotton fields unless 
 he could set a fair price for his product. 
 "If he is not permitted to grow it at a pro- 
 fit," said Mr. Aswell, "the world problem 
 of the future will not be how to get cheap 
 cotton, but how to get cotton at any price." 
 Mr. Aswell said the Southern farmer for 50 
 years had received less than one-half the 
 actual cost of producing cotton ; by placing 
 10 cents per pound import duty and also a 
 
40 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 corresponding 10 cents per pound export 
 bounty will relieve this very, very sad con- 
 dition. 
 
 Mr. Aswell in saying for the last 50 years 
 dates his beginning when the tariff for war 
 revenue was put on. Think of the suffer- 
 ing imposed on a branch of our American 
 citizens ! The wheat raiser has been placed 
 in just such a predicament only he has had 
 the virgin fertility of rich new land to ex- 
 haust, but this ought to stop, and the only 
 way our nation can place the American 
 wheat raiser in a position capable to im- 
 prove our nation's social fabric is to place 
 an import duty of $30 per ton on wheat and 
 also an export bounty of $30 per ton, and 
 in order to stay in the world's trade it will 
 be necessary to place a ship bounty of $10 
 annually per ton register on every foreign- 
 going American merchantman. 
 
 Professor R. V. Gunn of the Oregon Agri- 
 cultural College spoke during Farmers' 
 Week on the cost of producing a bushel of 
 wheat on 40 Sherman county farms. He said 
 the cost ranged from $1 to $2.80 a bushel. 
 I may say that most agricultural crops have 
 been raised at a loss for the last 50 years. 
 And when Senator Hatch instituted Agri- 
 cultural Experimental Farms he saw the ef- 
 fect and not the cause. Had our statesmen 
 placed enough protection on agriculture the 
 Agricultural Colleges would have come au- 
 tomatically and they would have functioned 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 41 
 
 with the farm, whereas they have never yet 
 properly functioned with the farm. In fact, 
 they have been a grand avenue of escape 
 for the poor farm boy from a life of slavery 
 and drudgery, and have given America a 
 grand army of business and professional 
 men. A story is told as follows by a Mr. 
 Russell Hawkins, a merchant, of the sale 
 of 100 bushels of wheat by a Dakota farmer 
 for $100 that finally reached the consumer 
 in bread for which the consumer paid 
 $749.10. The 100 bushels of wheat made 
 7491 one-pound loaves which retailed to the 
 consumer for 10 cents per loaf. The farmer 
 got 1.33 cents, the miller .66 cents, freight to 
 railroad .24 cents, baker 6.40 cents, retailer 
 1.5 cents per loaf. 
 
 If an export bounty of $1 per bushel was 
 paid the American farmer the cost of the 
 bread would be only $849.10, or just 1.33 
 cents more per loaf, or 11.33 cents per loaf. 
 This small difference would change a deca- 
 dent agriculture to a progressive, prosper- 
 ous agriculture. 
 
 The hundred bushels of wheat at $1 per 
 bushel in Europe would reach the consumer 
 for $200 in bread or for less than 3 cents per 
 pound loaf. The difference of cost to the 
 consumer in America is caused by tariff 
 protection. American labor is three times 
 as high as European labor in normal times 
 and city rents are just about in the same 
 proportion. The only salvation for the 
 
42 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 American farmer is to place an export 
 bounty on his wheat so he may have a 
 square deal. The same thing is true of the 
 cotton grower of the South. It is also ruin- 
 ous to make the importation of any raw ma- 
 terials from foreign lands free or nearly 
 free. 
 
 Take, for instance, free wool. It forced 
 the price of American wool so cheap that to 
 buy one suit of all wool tailor made cost the 
 price of two bales of wool, or 36 raw ma- 
 terials to buy one finished suit; with the 
 low tariff formerly placed on wool it com- 
 pelled the wool raiser to bring 15 raw ma- 
 terials to buy one suit of all wool tailor 
 made clothing in normal times, whereas in 
 Europe it only cost the wool grower five 
 raw materials to buy one finished suit.. 
 
 The tariff or import duty on grease wool 
 should be 50 cents per pound. The rural 
 population should be able to pay just as 
 high scale of wage as the city and then the 
 evil of aliens coming here and amassing for- 
 tunes in operating a few acres of garden 
 land near our city and getting the prices of 
 our protected city stores would be elimin- 
 ated entirely. 
 
 ^ A good index of how this works was pub- 
 lished in a Honolulu paper as follows : Pro- 
 fessor Y. Sakon, Aoyma Gakuin, a Chris- 
 tian institution in Tokio, who recently 
 passed through here on his way to the main- 
 land, believes not only in the annexation of 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 43 
 
 Japan to the United States, but in the estab- 
 lishment of an international cabinet with 
 headquarters in Jerusalem to rule over the 
 world regardless of nations or races. 
 
 "One would think that Japan would be 
 lost by annexation to the United States," 
 he said, "but I believe the Japanese people 
 through annexation would eventually come 
 to own the United States and that they 
 would gain by it/' 
 
 If the proper tariffs and bounties were 
 put on American agriculture the alien 
 would not be able to come here as I have 
 stated previously and amass a fortune in a 
 short time. During the war the sugar 
 countries made immense amounts on sugar. 
 One Honolulu, T. H., paper states the enor- 
 mous bonus paid by sugar plantations dur- 
 ing the past months has enabled many of 
 the common laborers to save an average of 
 $150 per month. Japanese live frugally and 
 as the plantation provides house rent free, 
 their only expenditures are on clothes and 
 food. Some of the Japanese laborers who 
 have resided here for years have over $30,- 
 000 in the banks to their accounts. This 
 prosperity is caused by tariff protection of 
 sugar. 
 
 The cause of the Agricultural Bloc in the 
 Houses of National Representatives started 
 50 years ago when a one-sided protection 
 was placed on American industry and it has 
 had a far-reaching effect on our national 
 
44 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 life. I cannot help but think if the hun- 
 dreds of miUions of dollars paid for irriga- 
 tion schemes had been paid the wheat and 
 cotton grower and the foreign going ship 
 owner in bounties, we should now be worth' 
 at least 200 billions of dollars in actual 
 wealth we do not now own, and have a 
 happy, contented, prosperous nation of at 
 least 200 millions of people. We have lost 
 more fertility which has run into our rivers 
 from our cultivated lands than have been 
 taken out of our irrigation lands, because 
 the price received by the American farmer 
 has been entirely too low to keep our agri- 
 culture up to the proper standard. Then we 
 should have all the mass of latent wealth in 
 our arid lands in a perfect state of con- 
 servation for our future generations. When- 
 ever things come to an equitable basis in 
 the farm with the city and the status of the 
 farm is lifted 300 per cent higher, then these 
 irrigation schemes are going to clash be- 
 cause they are going to make the cost of 
 production entirely out of proportion. We 
 have enough abandoned lands when brought 
 back by placing the farmer in his right fi- 
 nancial condition to supply this nation and 
 leave a lot for export for the next 100 years 
 without touching and drawing on our arid 
 land's fertile wealth. 
 
 I learned from two New York gentlemen 
 in cne week in the First Congregational 
 Church, Portland, Oregon. One, the Rev. 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 45 
 
 Mr. Wirtz of New York, in his sermon said, 
 they tell us we should move the church down 
 among the business sections of the city. 
 How could we do that? Why last week, he 
 said, property in the business section of 
 New York city sold for 35 million dollars 
 per acre ; that is seven times its value in the 
 city of London. And during the same week 
 at a Brotherhood Luncheon we were asked 
 to become acquainted with our next neigh- 
 bors. I introduced myself to a gentleman 
 on my right, and saying I was interested in 
 
 country property. He said, my name is . 
 
 I have been superintending the building of 
 schools at Binghampton, New York, but I 
 went on a farm. All around me were aban- 
 doned farms and the one I was on had just 
 as well be abandoned as it was completely 
 exhausted. 
 
 When I was a young man I had charge of 
 a fine Merino sheep ranch in Alameda 
 county, California, and I saw the hoboes be- 
 fore they were real hoboes. They were 
 young men from good eastern homes who 
 would work on the wheat ranches for $2 a 
 day as long as they were wanted and then 
 discharged at a minute's notice. They used 
 to come by carrying their blankets, out of 
 work and looking for something to eat. I 
 made arrangements with the owner of the 
 ranch so I could measure up some pole oak 
 for them to saw for a meal. This was caused 
 by high wages and low priced wheat. The 
 
46 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 farmer could not afford to keep his labor 
 steady and those poor men became hoboes, 
 drifting from Oregon to California with the 
 seasons. When I look back I remember 
 about 30 years ago just at sunset, I was 
 gathering my little brood for evening 
 prayer. I looked out west towards my po- 
 tato pits. I saw a poor hobo quietly walk- 
 ing towards the pits. I never let him know 
 he was seen and no doubt he got a chicken 
 as well, but I had a heart full of sympathy 
 for him, because I knew he and millions of 
 others were the victims of one of the crud- 
 est acts of vicious national legislation ever 
 imposed on a civiHzed race of people. I had 
 seen things differently back in the State of 
 Ohio, where I lived among a happy and 
 prosperous rural people not yet affected by 
 the tariffs. The hired men were hired by 
 the year and had steady work. The married 
 men were furnished a house and only $20 
 per month, but when one-sided protection 
 forced the price of unskilled labor to $2 per 
 day the farmer had to skimp along with 
 casual labor and in the meantime the la- 
 borer either went into the city or became a 
 wandering tramp. I think I have shown 
 very conclusively in a previous part of this 
 booklet where that condition can be com- 
 pletely cured. I attended a lecture by the 
 noted Miss Ida Tarbell on the cause of un- 
 employment. She seemed totally ignorant 
 of the vital facts and never once alluded to 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 47 
 
 the out-of-balance condition of our rural 
 life. During a drive for the poor starving 
 Armenians I took a section among the 
 working people with a gentleman who was 
 a Harvard graduate from the East, lately 
 engaged in business in this city. When we 
 got back to the Portland Hotel, our head- 
 quarters, he gave me his cheque for $25 and 
 I gave him my cheque. He said, Mr. Withy- 
 combe, I had no idea there was so much 
 poverty in the city of Portland as we have 
 seen today. This conditions is almost en- 
 tirely caused by the conditions I have ex- 
 plained and I fear for our America if some 
 wise and strong statesman does not adjust 
 our national economics, so our homes, both 
 rural and city, shall become happy and 
 prosperous. Under the prevaihng condi- 
 tions our farms are being treated like a 
 piece of merchandise, used as long as profit- 
 able and then thrown aside Hke an old shoe. 
 Sixty milHons of people placed in our rural 
 homes with permanent prosperity will safe- 
 guard this nation better than 10 millions 
 of trained soldiers. 
 
 In my boyhood days I saw the American 
 merchant marine before it was hit by the 
 protected tariff. Several American ships 
 were in the EngHsh Expedition up the Red 
 Sea to Annesley Bay to carry commissary 
 stores and troops to the Abysinnia war, 
 when Great Britain spent 50 millions sterl- 
 ing to recover her ambassador and his staff 
 
48 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 from the hands of King Theodore. That 
 ambassador was Mr. Grant and he saved 
 his company from execution by Theodore 
 by his Scotch wit. He told Theodore that 
 Queen Victoria was a widow and if he would 
 send a message that Mr. Grant would write 
 by a courier he thought he could arrange 
 a marriage. Of course Mr. Grant sent a 
 secret code and apprised the British Gov- 
 ernment of their predicament, and the first 
 thing King Theodore knew elephants with 
 breech-loading Armstrong cannon lashed 
 on their back were battering down the walls 
 of Magdala. One American ship, the Bos- 
 ton, lay alongside us for seven months. She 
 had 1000 tons of baled hay. She was not 
 required to unload one bale and when she 
 returned to Bombay with her cargo it was 
 in the rainy monsoons, she was given her 
 cargo of hay because the hatches could not 
 be opened. The captain took his cargo to 
 the Maritus and sold it for $30 per ton. The 
 Boston earned $65,000 for her eight month's 
 work. 
 
 About 30 years ago Germany sent 40 wise 
 men all over the world studying trade con- 
 ditions. They visited our state and all of 
 America. They saw our mistakes. On their 
 return to Germany, Minister of the Interior 
 Delbenck had put 55 marks per ton import 
 duty on wheat and the same ratio on meats 
 and other farm products. That increased 
 Germany's yield of wheat from 23 to 33 
 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDY 49 
 
 bushels and at the price of an average of 
 $1.50 per bushel when our wheat was only 
 70 cents per bushel and made the German 
 farmer so prosperous they were enabled to 
 buy large quantities of potash from the 
 government and they increased their crops 
 of potatoes till they could raise 400 bushels 
 per acre. They brought up agriculture so 
 that they were enabled to raise 85 per cent 
 of all the food consumed by 65 millions of 
 people on an area the size of Texas. And 
 that was one of the factors that enabled her 
 to fight a world war. To keep 15 millions 
 of tons of foreign merchant marine ships 
 prosperous the United States would need 
 to pay the ship owners $10 per ton register 
 annually. To make the American farmer 
 really prosperous the United States would 
 need to pay the farmer $1 per bushel export 
 and place an import duty of $1 per bushel 
 bounty on his wheat, and to make the cot- 
 ton grower equally prosperous the United 
 States would need to place 10 cents per 
 pound import duty and 10 cents per pound 
 export bounty on cotton. Or summarized : 
 15 milHon tons of merchant ma- 
 rine would cost $150,000,000 
 
 100 millions of export wheat.... 100,000,000 
 2 bilHon pounds export cotton.... 200,000,000 
 
 $450,000,000 
 The income tax of the United States 
 
60 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 
 
 equals three billions of dollars per year in 
 round numbers or six times as much as the 
 above bounties would cost. Yet in ten years 
 at an outlay of four billion five hundred mil- 
 lion dollars the United States would have 
 added national wealth of 200 billions of dol- 
 lars instead of losing billions in the exhaus- 
 tion of her lands. Her city trade, which is 
 about 10 billions of dollars per year, would 
 be increased to 15 billions of dollars per 
 year, and her rural trade, which is about 
 three billions of dollars per year, would be 
 increased to nine billions of dollars per 
 year. Her 15 millions of tons of merchant 
 marine, which at present is nearly value- 
 less, would be worth three billions of dol- 
 lars. Her agricultural lands, now worth 50 
 billions, would be worth 150 billions. Her 
 cities would be worth at least 150 billions 
 more than now. 
 
 Minister of the Interior Delbruck of Ger- 
 many said a small import duty on raw ma- 
 terial for 10 years added two billion five 
 hundred million to Germany's national 
 wealth, gave permanent employment to her 
 people and entirely suspended emigration 
 of her subjects, which had been forced to 
 leave the country by 800,000 a year pre- 
 viously. I feel certain if our statesmen will 
 look into the utterances of this little book 
 they will find out what is printed comes 
 very nearly to the exact truth. 
 
 THOMAS WITHYCOMBE. 
 
 432 Twelfth Street, 
 Portland, Oregon. 
 
PRESS OF 
 
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 PORTLAND. ORE: 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
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 MAR 1 1957 
 
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