The Farmer and the Tariff: A Reappraisal

Abstract

With these words does a recent writer echo a view which has long been held concerning the American tariff-a view which in almost every detail is either wrong or misleading. Thus it can be established that a full line of agricultural protection was provided a generation before World War I, that in the period since the Civil War Louisiana sugar producers have received substantial protection primarily because beet sugar producers in the Far West were given protection, that the net effect of farmer political pressure has been on the side of high tariffs, and that the American protective system as it developed would have been impossible apart from agricultural support. In retrospect it is easy to understand why these misconceptions developed. The valiant fight of Southerners against protectionism in the period before the Civil War is a chapter in American history which will never be forgotten. In the period since the Civil War, moreover, the most dramatic struggles against particular tariff measures have been led by agricultural interests. It is, in other words, true that it has almost always been farmers who have borne the brunt of the battle against high levels of industrial protectionism, although it does not follow of course that most farmers have been anti-protectionist. Thus the significant fact is not so much that some farmers have chosen on occasion to fight against protectionism as that these battles have typically failed, and that their failure has been primarily because too few of their farmer colleagues chose to stand with them. As the United States enters a period in which trade policy may be more important than every before, it is essential that our understanding of the foundations on which American protectionism rests be as complete as possible. A reexamination of this country's tariff history will clarify the role of the farmer in building these foundations.