Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-03-30

closing the cities, in which no food is pro
auced, increased 60 per cent, while the
farmer increased only IA per cent. The
fisherman showed no increase at all, rather
| diminishing in number and in extent of
output. If the same ratio of increase should
continue, with the increased population re-
ferred to, it would be very soon seen that
the question Of food is to be one of the
| greatest Importance within the next fifty
years.
The bread which now sustains the popu-
lation Is from flour derived from the most
northern states; the exhaustion of arabic
soils by constant cultivation and the trend
of the growth of wheat being continually
northward, Minnesota and Dakota furnish
now three-fourths of the entire flour prod
uct of this country. In fifteen years, it is
alleged, exports of all food products, includ-
ing provisions, will cease because of the
diminishing amount on the one hand and
the increased consumption by growth of
population on the other.
Under such circumstances the enormous
wheat areas of the British possessions in
North America are of great Importance to
this country. Not only will they have i'm
portance as a source of supply but by their
occupancy through emigration and other
wise they would create vast market so
accessible and so exclusive to the United
States that nothing in its history would so
benefit it's trade. Thus, if Michigan, Wis
consin and Minnesota have been contrib
utory to the benefits of this country in
absorption of goods on the one hand and
their supply of food and raw material on
the other, so will also the development of
regions of equal area and equal richness
within the British possessions.
The impending economic revolution,
therefore, is full of significance regarding
the northern region of the continent, as it
Is regarding the foreign trade, because
without the drawing of sword, the she'd
ding of "A drop of blood or the expenditure
of a single dollar the area of the trade Of
the United States can thus be doubled 1t
needs only a single act of the legislatures at
Washington and at Ottawa to have the
barrier broken down, so that even within
five years the foundation can be laid for a
progress on this continent in the next fifty
years measured only by that which has
taken place south of its center within the
last fifty years.
The field of opportunity for the next fifty
years is the portion of the continent now
unoccupied. The young men in our col
leges and schools when they come out need
the same chance that their predecessors
have had. That chance is pretty well pre-
empted. The limitations in area in the
United States have been reached. A "land
hunger" has already set in, as shown in
the tremendous rush for farms at the open
ing of every government reserve. 1t is i'm
possible to get n new farm in Minnesota
any more readily than it is in Pennsylvania
without displacing a farmer, and unless
the people continue to herd in the cities,
crowding the manufactures, or live one
upon another, there must be room for ex-
pansion. Canada affords that room.
The maritime provinces, described by
Governor Andrews, of Massachusetts,, as
possessing greater wealth in minerals and
agricultural possibilities than New York
and Pennsylvania" with a great coast line
of fisheries added, offer great inducements
for young men in the eastern states The
ability of these provinces to contribute raw
material, which New England needs for
the creation of foreign trade, is as palpa-
bic as that warmth comes from the sun.
Equally so with the great manufacturing
FACILITIES and raw material in the province
of Quebec, the enormous possible output
of food products from the province of Onta-
rio, while the minerals of Algoma, that
| treasure box of the continent, invite the
! energy and capital of the American peo-
Sessed.
These, however, are but the vestibule to
the vast wheat fields of the northwest,
where furrow can be made with a plow
thousand miles long, from Winnipeg to
the Rocky mountains, and be but a base
line for thousand miles square of farm
ing land British Columbia, on the Pacific,
completes the attractive picture, for here is
found not only wide agricultural areas,
but enormous needed supplies of timber,
sources of fish food unequaled elsewhere
in the world, and minerals the extent and
value of which far exceed those of all the
mineral states on the Pacific coast, not
withstanding the enormous output which
in the last fifty years they have exhibited
The half century Of opportunity now
opening up for the coming American boy
and girl must include within Its scope this
northern region, which has the best supply
Of raw material and food products essential
to the success of the United States In its
attempt to build up foreign trade. The
possibilities of profit, the field of opportu-
nifty, the settlement of numerous questions
of international concern, the absorption Of
immigration, the creation of ready made
customers and the hope of the future rest
in trade that shall be continental In ex-
tent as continental in profit.