More difficult to meet than any other criticism on high protection had always been the fact of the burden it put upon the farmer. Practically everything he had to buy was made dearer by the import duties. His domestic market was undoubtedly enlarged by the stimulus the tariff gave to manufacturers. There were more buyers at home for his products, but they paid the prices of the open-world market. There was no protection for his corn or wheat or barley or potatoes, nor was it generally of an advantage to him that there should be. He was the great exporter of the United States. He produced more than we could consume, and sold abroad. His prices were generally not made here but in the London market. In the cases where we did import agricultural products, high duties had not been levied for the good reason that they would make the necessities of life dearer. It would be a tax on food, and there had always been a reluctance to imposing that. If we did not raise potatoes enough for our people and must import, should we penalize the consumer because the farmer had failed to take advantage of the market at his door? Should we penalize him for the crop failure which might occur at any time? But, argued the protectionist of 1890, we are buying too much food abroad. What are we building up the home market for unless that it may supply all its needs from the home farmer, and it is not doing so. In 1889, said Mr. McKinley, we bought $256,000,000 worth of agricultural products abroad. This should be stopped. It was unjust to the farmer. When the figures Mr. McKinley quoted are analyzed they are less impressive, for upward of $200,000,000 of the importations were sugar, tea, coffee, and articles which we did not produce or in very small quantities, _i.e._ they were articles which the American farmer as well as factory hand must import if he uses them at all. This fact was slurred over in the argument. We were buying $256,000,000 worth of agricultural products abroad. The domestic market was not doing its duty by the farmer; that duty was to supply all its needs at home. The only reason it was not doing this was because there was too low a duty on the farmer’s products. The factory hands must be forced to buy home-grown potatoes, eggs, and meats. It was as logical, of course, to force the public at large to eat only home-grown food as it was to force the farmer to buy only home-made iron and steel. So in the interests of the farmer the McKinley bill for the first time in our tariff history taxed food generally and heavily. Eggs which had been free, 5 cents a dozen; potatoes, 25 cents a bushel; bacon, 5 cents a pound; barley, 30 cents a bushel. With this program the Republicans hoped to quiet the farmer’s discontent.