The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-10-08
The Food Problem.

The Boston CttttiUdtor, in comment
ing upon the supply of breadstuffs to
the teeming millions of the working
classes of England, says that no
weightier national question exists at
the present time than the food prob
lem between the United States and
Great Britain. 1t outranks in i'm
portance the armies and navies Ofthe
world, their laws or manufactures
it Is of more vital interest than COM
mercial treaties or protective tariffs,
which may become obsolete or inop-
erative through the necessities of the
people; it has already proved more
potent than legislative enactments,
guns, bayonets. or the strategies of
war. The ability of the United
.Statesto PRODUCE a surplus Of grain
and meat, and the capacity of Great
Britain in its consumption, are the
national problems of the hour. The
price at which the United States can
deliver bushel of wheat or a pound
of meat in the markets of England
has vast influence on the destinies
of both nations.
Great Britain. though of compare
lively small area, yet welding Il
worldwide influence in politics, fl
nance, commerce and manufactures,
is without the means within its in
ternal resources of growing the wheat
for its own population. Astounding
as it may seem, the progress of events
enables the American farmer of to-
day to dictate the rent-roll of the
British aristocracy. However dis
tasteful to the British lion, this fact
exists, that neither wealth nor pow
er, guns nor vessels OF. war can rise
superior to the demands of empty
stomachs. Hunger is more potent
than law. The war-cry of the corn
law league is not yet forgotten.
Cheap bread always brought de-
mand for labor, because the nations
from which England bought bread
became IN return purchasers of the
products of British labor. The En-
glish laborer is better fed to-day than
ever before, thanks to the American
farmer. The United States is pro-
, ducing wheat and corn in quantities
/ which would have been considered
J fabulous few years since, and at
r prices so low that the very mention
5 would have been looked upon as 6
} fiction less than generation ago.
7 England produces more wheat tc
= the acre than any other nation in the
2 world, yet neither soil nor climate
| renders it a wheat growing nation
, From its early history down to the
| present time, its natural production
: has been cattle. When Julius Caesar
l conquered the island. he said the peo.
pie were possessed Of large quantities
5 of cattle, but produced little grain
4 The grain grown by the British far.
D mer has always depended upon the
amount Object and mutton they could
produce. In years gone by they
1 counted little upon the profit in rails
! ing beef so long as they could make
| money in producing wheat; hence
l they purchashed corn and oil-cake to
l feed their beef and make fertile their
r lands, while heavy crop of wheat
5 was their profit. Years ago, a heavy
= tariff on wheat and meat protected
< the English landlords rent-roll.
r Enlarged importation of low-cost
: grain from the overwhelming fields
: of American farms has forced the
r English farmer to contract his wheat
: producing area. and to increase his
t breadth of pasturage for beef and
. mutton. But here again the farmers
3 of the United States are superior in
l the competition, not only raising
f aid exporting superior grain at low
: prices, but also beef, mutton and
3 pork in fact, the English market is
= in the hands of the American pro-
3 ducer, the latter making the price OF
, bread and meat not only in Britain,
but in Continental Europe. Reforms
never travel back ward. England will
I never re-establish tariff on food pro.
= ducts for man. With England pros
y porous in her commerce and manu-
factures, she is our greatest customer
for agricultural produ IT'S. This is a
supremacy for us far better than the
> glory and power achieved by inyad-
. ing armies. The implements with
+ which this bread republic should
seek to conquer are the plow and the
cultivator, the reaper and the mow-
1 ing machine. Our strategy should be
taught at the agricultural college and
the technical school. rather than at
West Point or Annapolis, while our
Campus MdTtioS should ever be the
broad acres of our fertile farms.
1t is singular coincidence that
the people of the United Statess were
twenty years ago Monday engage in
f,etinr opd Troxya unHar n nrnola-