The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-02


Future of the Farmers.
In the late election the farmers were
told by the sllverites that the reason the
farmers were not prosperous was that
gold has appreciated and that a gold dol
lar has twice the purchasing power it pos
sessed a quarter of a century ago. On
the other hand it was pointed out to them
that their real trouble was overproduc-
tlon-that they were producing more cot
ton, corn, wheat and meat than the world
needed-that whereas a few years ago,
when higher prices prevailed, thee prac-
tcally controlled the markets of the
world for their products, now they have
competition, especially in the production
of food products. Many of them pre-
ferred to believe their troubles were due
to the silver question, because they did
not want to admit that to get better
prices they would have to lessen produc-
ton.
In this connection Prof. f. r. A. Selig-
man of Columbia University made some
appropriate remarks on Tuesday, at the
ninth annual meeting of the American
Economic Association in Baltimore The
subject under discussion was THE
Future of the American Farmer and His
Share in Politics" Among other things
Prof. Seligman said:
1.-The trouble is that the people of this
country have been living pretty much in
a FOOLS paradise. We consider ourselves
different from other peoples and believe
that there was a different future in store
for us. For a long time we had
There
were vast fields in the west,
and population kept ahead of subsistence.
| Then came the building of the trunk lines,
which opened up the west and made us
the granary of the world. To that. above
all else. was due our immense prosperity,
our immense increase in population.
1T is a platitude to say that we are no
longer prosperous through our production
of foods. We are no longer the granary of
the world. Not only are South America,
Russia and India competing with us sue
| cessfully in food products, but the build
ing of this Siberian railway will open up
in year or two the greatest wheat field
the world has ever known, that of South
| ern Siberia.
This all means that not for years can
| agriculture occupy position of prosperity
| in this country. There IS bound to be de-
preston for farmers until our population
| has again caught up with subsistence,
and we are no longer a wheat-exporting,
but a wheat-importng nation. 1t is i'm
! possible for US to continue to be the
worlds feeder. Would it not be better to
/ be a wheat-importing nation, as England?
| In the future of this country, 1t seems to
| me, we Will become ever more and more
an industrial nation. There will be the
| relative unimportance of agriculture and
| the relative Importance of industry.
LAS to the question whether we are to
have tenant farmers or Independent farm
ers, I think it lies largely in the ability
| OF the farmers to adjust themselves to
| these new conditions. Their chief help is
to come from the intelligent manipulation
of capital as applied to agriculture"
Prof. Seligman takes the ground that for
years to come there will be no great pros
| perity for farmers in this country, not I'M
til the population increases to such an ex
tent as to consume the greater part of
what the farmer produces. because a
| great foreign market for food products,
owing to the opening of new agricultural
fields elsewhere, and hence a fierce com
petition. is a thing of the past. The Ar
gentine Republic, Russia and India have
become great wheat producers and are
| forcing down the prices of farm products.
The construction of the Siberian railway
will open the greatest wheat producing
country the world has ever known. The
grain farmers of this country therefore
must depend more and more upon the
home market, and overproduction will
force prices below the profit line
But what about the south? 1t seems to
us that southern farmers have a better
chance for prosperity than those of any
other part of the world. There is very
little prospect of dangerous competition
in the growing of cotton, and if they will
keep cotton production down to the actual
demand for that product they can always
get a remunorative price for their one
great crop. If they will raise less cotton
and give more attention to food crops
if they will produce the grain and fruits
needed for their families and their stock
and make cotton their money crop-they
can make themselves and the south rich
| and prosperous.