The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1903-09-02


Importance to the question of raising
the commodities we have to sell. We
have extended our fields, extended the
al cas- from which our agricultural pro-
ducts are raised, until we have practic-
ally created a supply that Is in excess
of the demand for a large portion of
the time.
The population of this country dou-
bles about every thirty years. In the
year 1890 we shall have a popula-
ton of from $50, 000, 900 to 100, 000, 900.
All the people must be occupied. II
the population continues to increase in
the ratio indicated where are we to
put them all. and what are they to do?
ON country is expanding in popu-
lation. What his been done to ex-
pand our markets? What intelligent
work has been done since the civil war
and that is as far back as most of
us remember or need to go-to add
to III foreign market?
l have given the subject some atten-
ton and am free to say that 7 have
failed to find a single intelligent SEN
tence, written or spoken by any one,
in an endeavor to improve our mark
ct for agricultural products.
With our great growth of ~popu'a'io
we must consider how the people
must be employed so that they may
be intelligent, prosperous and happy
We sell so or 20 per cent of our en-
tire products to one country-Great
Britain. If for any reason that coun-
try were not able to buy from us, our
people would realize very, very quickly
the situation they are in. Where can
we sell our wheat crop? In France
Italy, Austria or Germany we are met
with hostile legislation. We are not
welcome. To take our wheat to
Russia would be like carrying coal to
Newcastle.
II only one-third Of the people of
the world are wheat-eaters and the
other two-hirds live on rice or maize
or rye, we must find our markets with
people who are not now consumers
of our crops. I believe that wherever
wheaton flour has been introduced to
any race, with the single exception
of the black race, they are ready TO
consume it from that time On. The
Asiatic rice-eaters are as fond of flour
as the white race and as ready to eat
it, If they car get it at a fair price.
The question may arise, how can
people who work for wages of from
10 to Is cents a day, and have lived
for centuries on just such wages, buy
flour which must be carried across the
Pacific Ocean If they did buy flour,
even at the rate of one bushel per
capita, we in this country would have
to go TO eating corn pone. We simply
could not sell it to them. If we could
sell them one bushel per capita 1t
would take $50, O00, 900 bushels to sup
ply China and Japan alone, to say
nothing of the Straits settlements and
other countries having large popula-
tons.
In the north and west parts of
! China there is an excellent farming
country, where corn and wheat can be
raised but the products are so far from
the dense population on the seacoast
that it cannot be carried there. We
may perhaps fear that Russia, with
/ A. Cih1,;on rat1uraxy o0vnnIatnA maxy
enter into competition with us for the
Asiatic wheat or flour trade. The
transportation question settles that.
The average rate on the Russian state
railroads is Is cents per ton per mile.
If the actual cost of operation
amounted to but two-thirds OF this
fgure-1.2 per ton per mile-this rate,
applied to the distance from that part
OF Siberia where the wheat is grown,
would give a transportation charge of
s4.20 per BARREL on -four. while it
should be carried from our ports to
Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe, Shanghai
and Hongkong for % cents a hundred,
So a ton. so cents a barrel.
A year ago you could buy nails for
81 25 a key; now they are 1925. You
know how lumber has gone up and
all other articles of prime necessity
on the prairie farm. Fuel has advanc-
ed. Everything made of iron has adj
vanced. But the wheat crop has not
advanced, because it is sold in open
competition with the product of the
world. And until we get other people
to eat wheat it will not advance and
we will go on hoping against hope.
We will not get a high price for our
wheat until wheat is made scarce. II
we could increase our exports 10 the
Orient by 5000, 900 bushels, l have