Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1904-09-15
ROOSeVGlt'S LettefOf Acceptance
Continued from Page Four J


ouce. The annual output of our agricllI-
turaI products is nearly four billions of
ooIIars. Their increase in value has been
prodlglous, although agriculture has lam
sulshed IN most other countries, and the
main factor in this increase is the CORE
sPohdlnS increase of our manufacturing
industries. American farmers have pros.
pefed because the growth of their mar
ket mas kept pace with the growth OF
their farms. The additional market con-
tlnualiy furnished for agricultural prod
ucts by domestic manufacturers has
been lar in excess Of the outlet to other
lands An export trade in farm products
Is necessary to dispose of our srlrplrs
ana the export trade of our farmers, both
IN animal products and i'm plant products
has very largely increased. Without the
enlarged home market to keep his surplus
down we should have to reduce produce
ton or else feed the world at less than
the cost of production. In the forty
years ending in 1900 the total value of
farm property increased twelve and a
half billions Of dollars, the farmer gain
ing even more during this period than
the manufacturer. Long ago overpro-
duction would have checked the marvel
Gus development of our national agricul-
ture but for the steadily increasing de-
mand of American manufacturers for
farm products required as raw materials
Tor steadily expanding industries The
farmer has become dependent upon the
manufacturer to utilize that portion of
his produce which does not go directly to
food supply In 1900 50 per cent. or a lit-
Gle over half Of the total value of the
farm products of the nation was con-
sumed in manufacturing industries as the
raw material of the factories. Evidently
the manufacturer is the farmers best
and most direct customer. Moreover, the
American manufacturer purchases his
farm supplies almost exclusively in his
own country. NinC-tenths Of all the raw
materials of every kind and description
consumed in American manufactures are
of American production. The manufac-
turing establishments tend steadily to mi
crate into the heart of the great agricul-
tural districts. The center of the manu-
featuring industry in 1900 was near the
middle of Ohio, and it is moving west
ward at the rate of about thirty miles
In every decade, and this movement is in
VariabIy accompanied by a marked in
crease in the value of farm lands. Local
causes, notably the competition between
new farm lands and old farm lands tend
here and there to obscure what is happen
ing, but it is as certain as the operation
of any economic law that in the country
as whole farm values will continue to
increase as the partnership between man
ufactuTer and farmer grows more intl-
mate through further advance of indus
trial science. The American manufac-
turer never could have placed this nation
at the head Of the manufacturing ma
tions of the world if he had not had be-
hind him, securing him every variety of
raw material, the eXhaustless resources
Of the American farm, developed by the
skill and the enterprise of intelligent and
educated American farmers. On the 9TH
or hand, the debt of the farmers to the
manufacturers is equally heavy, and the
future of American agriculture is bound
up in the future of American manufaC-
lures. The two Industries have become,
under the economic policy of our govern
mcnt so closely interwovcn so mutually
interdcpcndent, that neither can hope to
maintain itself at the high water mark
of progress without the other. Whatever
makes to the advantage of one is equally
TO the advantage of the other.
So it is as between the capitalist ana
the wageworker. Here and there there
may be an unequal sharing as between
the two in the benefits that have come by
protection, but benefits have come to
both, and a reversal in policy would mean
damage to both, and, while the damage
would be heavy to ALL it would be heav-
lest and it would fall soonest upon those
who are paid in the form of wages each
week or each month for that weeks or
that months work.
Conditions change, and the laws must
be modified from time to time to fit new
cxigencies, but the genuine underlying
nrincinle of,Drotection, as it has been en-
bodied in all but one of the American tar
iff laws for the last forty years, has
worked out results so benehcent, so even
ly and widely spread, so advantageous
alike to farmers and capitalists and work.
ingmen, to commerce and trade of every
kind. that the American people, IT they
show their usual practical business sense,
will insist that when these laws are mod
ified they shall be modified with the ut
most care and conservatism and by the
friends and not the enemies OF the pro-
tective system. They cannot afford to
trust the modification to those who treat
protection and robbery as synonymous
terms.
In closing what I have to say about
the system of promoting American indus
try let me add word of cordial agree
ment with the policy of in some way in
Guiding within it's benefits by appropriate
legislation the American merchant ma
rine. 1t is not creditable to us as ma
ton that our great export and import
trade should be well nigh exclusively IN
the hands of foreigners.
It is difficult to know if our opponents
are really sincere in their demand for
the reduction of the army. II lnSincere
there is no need for comment, and Ii sim
cere what SHALL we say in speaking to RAJ
ficnaI persons of an appeal to reduce an
army Of 60 600 men which is taking care
Of the interests of over S0000,0Ql people?
Ire army is now relatively smaller than
1t was in the days of Washington, when
on the peace establishment there We're
5000 soldiers. while there were a little
less than 100000 of population; smaller
than it was in the peaceful days of JEFF
ferson, when there were 800 soldiers to
$500, 600 population. There is now one SOL
der to every 400 people in this country
less than onc-tenth of / per cent. We
cannot be asked seriously to argue as to
the amount Of possible tyranny contained
in these figures. The army as II is now is
as small as it can possibly be and serve
its purpose as an effective nucleus for
the organization, equipment and supply
Of volunteer army in time Of need. 1t
is now used, as never before, for aiding in
the upbuilling Of the organized militia of
the country. The war department IS en-
gagged in a systematic effort to strengthen
and develop the national guard in the
several states--aa witness, among many
other instances, the great field maneuVers
at Manassas which have just closed, II
our opponents should come into power
they could not reduce our army below it's
present size without greatly impairing its
efficiency and abandoning part of the ma
tional duty. In short. in this matter IL
our opponents should come into power
they would either have to treat this par
ticular promise Of the year 1904 as they
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