The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-07-31
Need of Home Production.

ency communities sometimes neglect
their opportunities in the matter Of
home production, while possessed of
every material and facility for sue
cessfully providing for their own needs
as we'll as creating a surplus for ex-
port. This neglect was conspicuous in
the South, where the people, during the
slavery period, were content to pro-
duce the raw cotton only, and rest
upon the income derived from its sale.
With the development of the South
since the Rebellion, and the unfolding
of her resources, complete transfor-
nation has taken place, until the pres
ent indications point to that section
as one of the most promising indus
trial communities in the future history
of the country. The prediction has
been made, among others, that the
next quarter of century will witness
the transfer to the South of the entire
cotton spinning and textile plant of
New England. Certainly there exists
nothing to retard the undertaking, in
aSmuch as the South, being already
possessed of the raw cotton, is abund-
antly supplied with the necessary fuel
existence of railways for internal dis
tribution of the products, the section
is favored with a sea coast extending
from Chesapeake bay to Galveston,
Tex, with capacious and deep harbors
at one or more points in every state
bordering upon the ocean, for her COM
merce with the world.
California, with a territorial area al
most as large as that of France, eX-
ponds millions of dollars annually for
articles which, it is claimed, could just
as we'll be produced by her own people.
1t is, of course, widely known that
some of the finest fruits are grown in
that state; yet it is said that large
quantities of fruit preserves are sold
in San Francisco and other cities of
the state, bearing the labels of French
and italian manufacturers.
The fact is pointed to that approx
mately $25, GEO worth Of sugar is i'm
ported every year into the state for
home consumption, whereas it is held
that not only this amount could be pro-
duced by the people themselves, but
surplus provided for export. 1t has
been demonstrated that oranges have
been shipped from California to New
York, there made into marmalade, and
returned across the continent to the
markets for consumers in the Pacific
coast cities and for export to Asiatic
countries. The single item of con-
densed milk, for which a large demand
exists for consumption in the mining
camps and for tranS-Pacific export, is
for the most part carried all the way
over transcontinental railway lines
from New Jersey and other Eastern
localities. Even canned sweet corn is
literally imported into California from
the state Of Maine. And turning to the
actual product of the farm we discover
that turkeys and eggs are chiefly I'M
ported, while a single commission
house in San Francisco alone handles
annually 100000 chickens shipped
thther from without the state.
These facts concerning California are
given simply as an illustration of SINH
lar conditions prevailing in other states,
and because some of the periodicals Of
that state have called attention to their
existence. Undoubtedly the rapid
growth and development of this coun-
try and the extension of our great sys-
TENS of transportation have had largely
to do with the scattering rather than
the concentration and Investigation Of
local energies But the time is ap
preaching when greater intensity Of
application will be necessary and COM
munities will be required to conserve
all their forces The aim will be to
produce at home everything, and as
much as needed, for consumption by
the community and accumulate the
revenues from the surplus. Into this
practice must always enter, Of course,
the element of exchange of the manu-
featured articles for certain classes Of
raw material; but true economy will be
found to exist in the absorption and
utilization Of natural products and say
ing in the cost of transportation, as
we'll as the distribution among the peo-
pie of the locality of the money paid
for their labor.
Thus Minnesota, with it's wealth of
raw material in the form of hemp and
natural grasses, for instance, is already
setting an example in home production
in first seeking to manufacture every
thing required by her people as the
product of fiber before importing the
article from beyond her borders. st.
Paul has grown to be a considerable
me- nufacturing point in the lire of boots
and shoes and harness, as we'll as other
leather goods. With the hides Of cattle
slaughtered at her increasing packing
plants and with unlimited supplies of
tanbark at her very doors, some plan
might profitably be evolved whereby
these elements of raw material might
be utilized rather than that the hides
should be shipped hundreds of miles
distant for the labor Of other communi-
ties to dress and prepare them for re-
turn, at double cost of transportation,
to this point of manufacture and dis
tribution. The same may be said of
the treatment of wool, millions Of
pounds of which pass annually through
the state from points in the Northwest
to the Atlantic seaboard cities to be
returned in the form of fabrics under
the double tolls for transportation.
There is no reason why giant wooden
mills should not be profitably operated
on the northern banks of the MssiS sippi
any more than upon the banks of the
Sckuylkill, the Delaware and other
rivers of the Middle as we'll as the New
England states.
The above illustrations are only in
dicative of the possibilities existing. OF
course Minnesota, as one of the young
er states. has accomplished much al
| ready; but, with the increasing popula-
ton Of the Northwest very much mora