Political Quotes

“I will add a historical note here because it suggests the global reach of what might seem to be local problems. I think it is widely agreed that it was the arrival of wheat from western New York in Liverpool through the Erie Canal that led to the repeal of what the British called the ``corn laws''--the British use the term ``corn''; we use the term ``wheat''--which kept the tariffs on wheat so that the vast landlords could remain the vast landlords. American wheat was so much less expensive that the British decided to cease all that and become an industrial nation. And then two generations later, it was the arrival in the Baltic of wheat from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas. The prices were such that the local, aristocratical, landed gentry of Prussia simply could not compete. The next thing you know, you have enormous emigration from that part of the world to the United States through Ellis Island. These are not small events. The price of food is a very important matter. It is a tribute to American farmers that we don't think much about it any longer because it has become relatively stable.”