The age-herald., 1898-07-05
DR. ". B. PHILLIPS WRITES FROM OMAHA Advises Southern People to Wsil
 the Exposition. WEST SOURCE FOOD SUPPLY Some Pertinent Views on Immigration to the South-Must Offer More Than Fine Climate Good Schools, Good
 Roads, Etc, Necessary.
WEST SOURCE FOOD SUPPLY

.- Dr. w. B. Phillips, the newly elected sec- retary of the Commercial club, who is at present in Omoha in charge of the Bir- mingham exhibit at the Trans Mississippi and International Exposition, is thorough ly satisfied with the show that he has made, and with the exposition itself. He advises southern people to visit the expo- sition and learn, something of the people who furnish a large part of our food sup ply.
 Dr. Phillips also entertains some perti- nent views immigration to the south from the western states. In letter to the Age-Herald, he says:
 Southern people ought to come to this exposition If they have no other reason it would suffice to say that they were look ing after their smoke-house and corn crib. These are the people, from Nebraska, Iowa. Kansas, Montana, Minnesota, etc., who supply us with what we eat. and we seem to be eating much these days that Cudahy has built new packing establish ment at Sioux City. It can kill and pack 1900 head of cattle, l, 900 sheep and 3oOl hogs per day, more than enough Tor a Shrine picnic, for the Shriners are bread eaters and do not consume much meat For this reason they would do well to visit Nebraska, which raised last year 2n S,49) bushels of corn and 27 452, ,647 bushels of wheat.
 Great GranarteS or the NattOn
 .'Mv own business does not take me much among the agriculturalists and almost my sole personal interest in farm products IS as shrner But I was greatly concerned over a statement made the other day that Nebraska raised more corn than any other state in the union, and so she does. Last year her crop was 2f1, ,26S,49O bushels, while Illinois came second with 252,92s,O35 bushels, and Iowa third with 22O,OS9,l49 bushels. Besides the corn and wheat Nebraska raised 5, ,731, ,095 bushels of oats, 9,O76,O53 bushels of potatoes, 3,O69SS5 tons of hay, 14,741, 400 pounds of beet sugar, and her dairy products were valued at $fU000,00O, and poultry and eggs at $S,O0O,OO0.
 'The highest value for corn was in 1S9i- 50 cents a bushel-and the lowest In lsS9 and 1S96-17 cents. The average value Of corn during the seventeen years prior to 1887 was 27 cents, and in only three years during that period did 1t show value in excess of 30 cents. The average yield per acre during this period was 2S.9 bushels, and the average value of the land $I.S0 per acre.
 'Here is the great grainery of the nation and Nebraska farmers today are feeding the iron workers and coal miners of Ala bama, as well as those of Pennsylvania and Ohio. When they have season, they get rich, but when the thrice-blessed rain fails to come in time and the burning
 winds sweep these wide plains. like 'sWheelock" simeon sweeping the hot sands of the destern, then they are willing to go somewhere else. We get our corn and wheat and beef and pork from the west and the northwest, and we could get our immigrants from the same place.
 "It is almost useless undertaking to try to induce eastern and northern far mers to come south except through the west Asto the supposed over-population of the eastern and northern states 1t exists only in the fertile imaginations of some per-fervd enthusiasts and so far as the drift of this over-population towards the south is concerned 1t is a feeble rivuet with hardly enough energy to run down
 hill. I do not think that it is at all nec- essary to spend time or money in attempt ing to influence eastern and northern far mers to go south, and for the most part it is only those who have, to some extent, been disappointed in the west, perhaps through no fault of their own, who come to us The climatic conditions argument has been used until it is entirely thread- bare tatterd and ridiculous. It Is the op- portunity of acquiring home, of provid- ing for the family, of owning land, of con- tributing to the building up Of the com monwealth, of making money. that carries people into other strange surroundings. What do they care about climate? Given the opportunity to own comfortable home to send the children to good schools to lay up for the inevitable rainy day and men go just as readily to the coldest and toughest parts of the country as to the more favored regions-more favored by na- ture-ess favored by man.
 ''The west and the northwest. clear up to the Kootenai in British Columbia, Is building up with marvellous rapidity. for. as an old pioneer said to me recently, in the lifetime of one man fifteen million peo- pie have crossed the great river and settled in the west These peopl care little or nothing about clmat, but they care a great deal about roads, and schools and churches and markets, and until the southern states can offer them what they have at home and something in addition (not climate) | they will stay at home and act very wisely | in doing so.
 All this talk about superiority of climate,