The Dickinson press., 1891-05-16

In a leading editorial on "The Farm
ers' Golden Age at Hand" the Pioneer
Press says: "There is scarcely room for
doubt that the agricultural depression
which has been experienced all over the
world for the last few years is about to
pass permanently away. 1t was caused
chiefly by the remarkably rapid expan-
sion of wheat culture in the western dis
tricts of America and Canada, simulta-
neously with the opening of new Compel
ing sources of supply by the extension
of the railroad systems of India, the Ar
gentine Republic, Russia and other coun-
tries. The impression has widely pre-
vailed that this overproduction, with
the resulting low prices for wheat and
other food staples, would be p%erpetuated
by the same causes which brought it
about. But there is abundant evidence
that this view of the situation is wholly
erroneous, and that, on the contrary,
we are on the eve of an era of perma-
nently high prices for agricultural
products and of a greater degree of pros
perity for the farmers of this country
than has ever been experienced. In an
elaborate article in the May number of
the Arena on the wheat supply of Eu-
rope and America, Mr.. G. Wood Davis
undertakes to show, and, it seems to us,
does show concluslvely, that the worlds
consumption of wheat is rapidly over
taking, if it has not already overtaken,
this increased production, and will soon
80 far surpass it that by 1895 the wheat
supply of the world may be wholly mad
equate to meet the growing demand for
it. By that time, according to him, the
United States, so far from being able to
export wheat to meet the increasing Eu-
ropean deficiency, will not raise wheat
enough for its own consumption. These
conclusions are startling, but they are
supported by an array of facts which
demonstrate, at least, that we are fast
approaching a period when the United
States will cease to be a wheat exporting
country. The conclusion, then, seems to
be solidly established that we are on the
eve of a period of permanently high
prices for wheat and other food products,
and of unprecedented prosperity for the
farmers of this country, and more es-
p%ecially those inhabiting the wheat belt
of the northwest. The era of cheap
bread and of poverty for the agricultural
classes is about to pass away forever.
With the advent of high prices for farm
products the farmers of the United
States will become larger purchasers of
the products of the shops, the mills
aud the factories of the cities, and
their prosperity will thus ensure that of
all other classes of the population. AL
ready there is a more active demand for
farm lands than has been known for
years before, and this fact and the higher
prices realized for farm products since
last fall, instead of being the accidental
result of temporary conditions, are the
h%arbingers of a stupendous revolution in
the conditions of agricultural industry
which is going on throughout the world,
and which is destined to lift the farmers
of the northwest to a position of pros
porous independence which they have
never pictured in their widest dreams.
We are entering the golden age of agri-
culture in the United States, and the
farmers, whose impoverished condition
has been for many years the stock in
trade of the politicians, who have under
taken to legislate them into prosperity,
will soon find that they need no Moses to
work their deliverance with statutory
miracles. For the promised land of
milk and honey is already at their doors,
and no other miracle is needed to put it
in their full possession than patient in
dustry AID thrift and probity.
The supreme court of the United
States has shown that there is a way to
tax the various transportation companies