Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-02-28
SOUTHERN STANDARD NcMINNVILLE TENNESSEE

/ duu CldSS Vi DOdSllul Americans,
have We'd with each other in contin.
ually proclaiming the ability of
America to forever feed the world.
Once set in motion, such statements
gather volume and momentum as
they travel, the result being that this
has become both political and COM
mercial dogma which it is sheer here
sy to question, Notwithstanding there
is abundant evidence showing that
the expectation of food products
notably bread>stuffs-long since
reached its maximum and has been
waning for we'll nigh ten years, and
that the nations of Europe must be.
stir themselves if they are to secure a
development in other regions which
will enable them to dispense with
such contributions have, for nearly a
decade, decreased in the same meas
ure that home requirements have
augmented; such augmentation being
in exact proportion to the increase in
population, there having-since 1880
been no permanent increase in the
area devoted to the growth of wheat.
The increasing poverty of the In
dian cultivator, the construction of
railways in India, the opening of the
Suez canal, with such a depreciation
in the price of silver as enabled the
European to buy for less than &c cents
sufficient American silver to coin a
| rupee, which he exchanged, in India,
} for 80 cents worth of wheat-tirst de-
preciating our silver and then using
) this deprecated product of our mines
f to depresS the value ofthe products of
our tields-and the abrogation lin
: 1879 of the Indian export duty on
3 wheat, have, without increasing the
area of Indian wheat fields, develop
: ed an export trade in Indian wheat,
} which increased from less than one
2 million bushels in 1873 to a maximum
S of II 100000 in 1885, since which time
/ there has been a material decline in
: the Indian wheat area, production
: and expectation.
i Synchronous with the construction
4 of the Suez canal and Indian railways
(Which made it possible for the ryots
: of Hindostan to send their wheat to
S Europe without along and hazardous
u voyage through tropical seas) the
e most stupendous development Of ag-
: ricultural wealth known to history
: was taking place on the North Ameri.
J, can continent, where population
u doubling its number in % years, was
|, able to double the area in cultivation
: and the product of cereals and cotton
r in Is years. Simultaneous Herewith
0 has been the development, or utiliza.
a ton, of immense pastoral resources in
u the La Plata region, Australasia and
on the plain and mountain areas O.
l. the United States; the result being
e that, since 1870, the worlds CONNER
IL cial supply of beef and mutton has
% more than doubled-such an enor'
u nous increase in the supplies of bread
re and meat seeming to reverse TIT
is Malthusian theory of the relative in
'e crease of population and food-witf
lie consequent cheapening of agricultu
l. raj staples in all the marts of the west
l. ern world, ultimately reducing rent
l. throughout Europe, causing a rapiC
es and continuous fall in the value o
he land and the impoverishment of tn
V, cnltivator in all parts of the temper
ID ate zones. How could there be othe
es results when in the ten years ending
y with 1881 the export of bread stuff
E. from India and the United States in
ID creased 921 per cent-or from $4,000,
ST 600 to 223, 100000 bushels-while tn
Il population of Europe increased abou
eight per cent? Since 1881 such an
in nual exports have shrunken abou
e, 100000, 600 bushels, while those iron
s, the United States will continue t
- shrink even more rapidly and ceas
in at an early day.
D, Anything approaching such an in
d. crease in the worlds supply of foo
pc as obtained during the fifteen yeal
n ending with 1885, is wholly unexam
W pied in history, and can never be re
r- peated, as nowhere on the earth
ne surface can he found such an unoccl
e., pied and favored region as that no.
ng constituting the prairie States, whel
N. the absence of a retarding fore
"a growth made it possible for an ente,
an prising and hardy race, aided b
nd means of transport growing as rapiC
VS. ly as did the volume of products to !