292 WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION :

consumers to sell to, and should get bigger profits from their commodities.
 That is the theoretical side. But it does not work out that
way in practice; because if, say, 90 per cent of our people should move
from the farms, leaving only 10 per cent present on the farms, history
bells me that these big consuming areas, instead of paying a big profit
to the 10 per cent on the farm, are going to get their food, clothing,
and shelter from the rest of the world. So that practically the drift
to the city is an economic threat to the American farmer ; because
politically and economically now he is overridden by what I may call
the metropolitan or otherwise the consuming population. The consuming
 population, in a representative democracy like we have in
America, expresses itself through its governmental functions, and if it
keeps on growing comparatively, and the farm population weakens
comparatively, in a 10-year period from now, or at least in a generation
 from now, the American farmer, in his domestic market where he
can theoretically get big prices for his stuff, will be selling against the
world. I am saying this to all the committees of Congress, particularly
the Ways and Means Committee and the Finance Committee; that
if we do not get adequate tariff rates in this revision that is going on
now, it will be good-bye to America ever getting satisfactory rates so
far as agriculture is concerned.
Mr. EsterLy. If the manufacturers do not give you what you want,
you will not have anything to sell them?
Mr. Gray. Yes, sir.
Mr. EsterLY. Personally I am for seeing the farmer get good prices.
I am in the silk-hosiery business, and I want to sell them silk hosiery;
and we can not sell them silk hosiery unless they get good prices.
I operate a farm myself, and I know how they soak you for shrinkage
on corn, with the exchanges, and by the time you haul it there, you
are just subsidizing the general public.
Mr. Gray. I think that is true. The largest single group of consumers
 in the country is the farm group, although it is a minority as
compared to the entire strength of our Nation; but it is the largest
single consuming group. So many of us think of the farmers as being
producers; but we are consumers, we are the biggest consumers in
America. If we are not protected against the foreign low-cost, lowstandard
 producers, what you describe will become a reality in 20 or
25 years, and then you who want to sell us automobiles, shoes, silks,
and so forth, will have vour biggest market removed as a possible
purchaser.
The Cratrman. It works out in a third way. This population that
works in the city is paying 6 and 7 cents a pound for potatoes, for
which the farmer gets 1 cent a pound. The city man has got to buy
potatoes to live on at a high price, and he has no money to pay for
the very thing that his concern manufactures. It works out that
way.
Mr. Gray. The man in the city has his troubles similar to the man
on the farm. These discussions are not irrelevant to, but they are
subsidiary to, the proposition before this committee now. These side
lines that we are. talking about now show that the American farmer
is interested in keeping his production going. This discussion shows
also that the American farmer is willing to pay a living wage for
whatever labor he gets on his farm, and if we advocate in the American
Farm Bureau Federation that this question of seasonal labor for
agriculture be studied carefully before a final determination is arrived