(5) How a of Climate led to the Civil War.—Climate, like other geographical conditions, has a strong effect upon political rela tions. The climate of the Southern States causes them to be one of the best places in the world for the highly profitable crops of cotton and tobacco. Strange as it may seem this fact has in one way been a decided disadvantage for it lead to the introduction of negro slavery. The early settlers soon found that they could make great profit out of tobacco if only they had laborers, and when cotton became still more profitable the need of laborers increased. Since white people of the Northern races generally become sickly if they work much out-of-doors in the South, especially in summer, owners of large farms or plantations began bringing black slaves from Africa.
No one then thought this wrong. In early days slaves were held among the Puritans of New England as well as among the people of the South. In the North, however, slave labor did not pay. To get a living from the soil demanded hard, steady work, for which the slaves were not fit. A slave ate as much as a white man, and wasted much more. In the Northern States it was actually more profitable to hire a white man than to own a slave. Hence slavery did not long survive.
In the South, on the contrary, slavery was profitable. The white man was not at his best because of the long summer. A slave, how ever, could do more than in the North because there was no severe winter to hinder him. In the Southern climate even the labor of an inefficient slave furnished more than enough to support himself and his family, and the work of other members of the family swelled the profit to the owner. This was especially true when the prices of to bacco and cotton were high. Therefore, in the South slavery per sisted.
While slavery thus became entrenched in the South the world was gradually becoming convinced that human slavery is wrong. This conviction easily spread in the North but failed to make headway in the South since the people were blinded by their great profits. Hence for a time Anti-slavery and Pro-slavery dominated the politics of the whole country and finally brought on the Civil War. • That terrible struggle would never have occurred but for the marked climatic contrast between the North and the South. Even to-day the politi cal divergence arising from the difference in climate between the North and the South still persists in the fact that the Democrats count on the vote of the "solid South," while the chief strength of the Republicans is in the North.
(6) How Geography Dominates the Tariff Question in American Politics.—Many people suppose that they believe in free trade or pro
tection because of principles of general justice. The vast majority, however, hold one belief or the other simply because of the place where they live or the occupation that they follow. The plants and animals that grow Ma place or are used in its industries influence our beliefs far more than any amount of theoretical argument.
As a congressman once put it: "We are not patriots in our treat ment of the tariff. We forget the good of the country as a whole, and think only of what products we want free or protected because of the geographical conditions in our particular part of the country.P The following examples of things that have actually happened in Congress when a tariff bill has been under discussion illustrate his words. (1) A Massachusetts Republican, although belonging to the party that advocates protection, demanded that hides be placed on the free list. He came from a shoe manufacturing region. At the same time a Texas Democrat whose party believes in free trade, insisted that the duty on hides be increased. The plains of Texas are excellent for cattle, and a high duty on hides would increase the price of their skins. (2) A South Carolina Democrat demanded a pro tective duty on rice. (3) When the tariff on sugar was reduced by the Democrats the Louisiana Democrats and the Michigan Republicans, representing cane sugar and beet sugar, united in opposing the measure tooth and nail. (4) Senators from the Rocky Mountains dwelt upon the importance of protection, of wool. (5) The repre sentatives. from California demanded protection of lemons. (6) Minerals have the same effect as plants and animals. For when the Republicans voted for free coal a Pennsylvania Republican eeclared that this was a repudiation by his party of its policy of protection.
In general each part of the country wants protection and high prices for the things that it produces, and free trade and low prices for the things which it must bring from elsewhere. Manufacturers generally want a tariff on manufactured goods and free trade for raw materials and food. The rich agricultural States of the Miss issippi Valley generally want low duties on manufactured goods and high duties on food. The Southern States in general favor free trade because they bring practically all their manufactured goods from a distance. Free trade does not alter materially the price of their one large export, cotton, because other parts of the world have. not enough to export to America.