St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-26
LOCAL CROP EEFECrs.

from her rich breast we one and all
draw our strength. Not alone he who
tills the soil gets his living from the
soil, but so also do men of every trade
and calling.
The farmers return is big when
the harvest is bountiful. If an acre
Yields in one season twice the
crop it has the year before, not two
fold, but fourfold may be the increase
in its owners profit, In every enter
prise fixed charges must first of all be
met; and on the farm, as in the shop,
these may stand still while the volume
of business is growing. To market thirty
bushels of wheat where there had been
but fifteen before means but little
more labor and but little more outlay.
The farmer is safe in crediting
all that he gets for the differ
ence to the account of gain. The ag-
gregate addition to Minnesota's avail
able wealth by harvest of the size
which is reported for the present sea-
son mounts to figures beyond the
power of the mind to grasp.
Another thing may we'll be consid-
cred. The fruits of the earth are
not, like other commodities, subject
to overproduction. There is none
of the depressing alienation of act
i've demand and absolute stagnation.
Wheat and corn in the granaries repre-
sent. bushel for buShel, so many grains
of gold or silver. convertible at a mo-
ment'S notice. 1t is not necessary to
carry them in stock, as the storekeeper
does his merchandise, or to wait for a
favorable turn, as does the bondholder
or the real estate owner. No interest
charges have to be weighed against
their price. They can be sold when the
farmer wills. because the consumer
needs them. Their value is actual and
immediate, not prospective or specu-
lative.
The money which pours into a state
in return for the products it exports be-
comes fund for expenditure or invest
ment. They who receive it lay it out
partly in commodities for immediate
use. The retailer who deals in these
finds his business and profits swollen
by the opportunity. He increases his
supply of goods, and diSposes of them
to his customers who have the funds for
their purchase. His margin of gain he
i'll turn has at hand for improving his
own condition of comfort or for boarding
against the future. The jobber and the
manufacturer feel the effects of his sue
cess in the expansion of their own trade
and the accumulation of new wealth.
Out of the full harvest every one in due
course reaps an advantage, and the
labor markets are empty because all the
laborers who before stood idle are
hired.
Last of all, the speculative and invest
ment lines start into activity under the
contagion. Men having a surplus be,
yOnd their immediate needs look about
for a safe and promising place of de-
post. Some of them venture in ave-
nues which hold out hopes of great
riches. Others buy conservative securi-
ties which are offered them. Some leave
their savings in banks, which, thus
equipped. afford ready accommodation
and enable their customers to try things
which have seemed impossible. All the
wheels in every industry whirl faster
and longer under the fabrication of
thirty bushels of wheat to the acre.
This is the history of business every
where and at all times. 1t is particu.
larly the history of business in our own
state and city, and at the present hour.
The moment of fruition in its fullness
is not yet come, but it is at hand. The
GLOBE is sure of this from what it
knows of the past, 1t is sure of it also
from what the leading men of st. Paul
and Minneapolis tell it. During the
past three or four weeks it has published
interviews with the captains of all our
local industries. Morning after morn.
ing they have told the readers of the
GLOBE their own experience and ex-
pectations through these columns.
The faithful reporters who have
taken down their words have pre-
sented a story astonishing IN its uni
formity and most gratifying in its char
acter. This paper feels particularly
proud Of the enterprise aud success
with which it has compiled this infor
nation from these sources, and calls the
public's attention to the close CORE
spondence between the conclusions thus
presented and the differences tn us made
from the regular course of trade in the
time that is gone.