The Minneapolis journal., 1902-08-21
Mr.. HILLS ADDRESS


congress yesterday another one Of those
solid, substantial addresses Of his; brist-
ling with facts, buttressed with argu-
ments and full of good, common sense.
Mr.. Hill finds his oriental traffic hobby
ever new and much of what he said on
that subject. Is familiar to northwestern
people. But very large part of the ad-
dress was devoted to two subjects which
have only within a year or two begun to
appear in Mr. Hills public remarks in
such a way as to indicate that they have
secured great hold on his thought and
his imagination.
OF course Mr.. Hill has ever keenly ap-
preciated the Importance of the agr1-
cultural development Of the trans-Missis-
sippi country. He has built railways to
promote it and 1t has. in return. paid
him dividends. But of late Mr. Hill has
been profoundly impressed that the agri-
cultural development of the west is far
more important than its mines and its
manufa ctures, that after all the basis of
national wealth and greatness Is land and
that the policy of the government as we'll
ss the industrial policy of great interests
should be primarily concerned with the
prosperity and happiness Of the landown-
er. The farmer Is the backbone of the
nation. He is the man who feeds it. who
furnishes it with its best human material,
who labors hard and honestly, who is
ever Industrious. who makes wealth and
does not get rich by speculating with the
wealth Of others.
Mr.. Hill cannot talk too much or too
often in this strain. The tendency is too
much for overgrowth of that side Of ma
tional life which the farm feeds and to
the underground Of the feeder. The trunk
of the tree tends to develop faster than
the roots. Yet the late census figures are
full Of gratifying surprises, the chief
among them being that with all. our man
ufacturing growth and our population
growth and the expansion of our cities
we are to-day, measured in the surplus
of agricultural products, more a nation
Of farmers than we were fifty years ago.
Closely related to his magnifcation of
the farm is Mr. Hills advocacy of the
Improvement of the Mississippi to a ten
foot channel from st. Louis to New Or
leans. That he says, is the national
waterway to the sea. The great-lakes-
and-the-st. Lawrence route is partly con-
trolled by Canada. No American ship
canal can make a great lakes route that
will compete with the St. Lawrence out
let. Moreover, the Mississippi route
st. Louis. of course. the river is ice
bound part of the time. That is good
argument, perhaps, for making st. Louis
the head of the principal part of naviga-
tion. Another is the imposstbility of
getting anything like such a deep channel
from st. Louis to Minneapolis. Neverthe-
less the difference is one in degree rather
than nature. The upper Mississippi i'm
provement is corollary Of Improvement
to St. Louis. During large part of the
year immense quantities of bulky freight
destined for export or internal consump-
tion could be forwarded from Minneapolis
to st. Louis. there to be transhipped and
sent on its way. The completion of the
isthmian canal will vastly enhance ths
Importance Of a waterway from Mime
apolis to the gulf Mr.. Hill may be luke.
warm towards the canal and scornfu
of the upper Mississippi because he thinks
that both would divert freight from his
railway systems. In that he exhibits
shortsightedness unusual in him. In the
great stimulation that will be given tt
commerce and transportation by the i'm
provement of the Mississippi waterwa,
and the construction of the canal Mr.
Hills lines will enjoy such a generall,
increased traffic that they would neve,
miss the loss of some wheat traffic be-
tween Minneapolis and St. Louis and tn,
loss of some cotton and other freight tha
would go west by the canal rather thar
. the railway lines.