The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-12

tablished by the last census is the
wide and even distribution of wealth
among all classes of our countrymen.
The chief agencies in producing this
distribution are shown by the census
to be the development of manufac-
lures, land the application of new in
ventions to universal use. The result
has been an increasing interdepend-
ence of agriculture and manufactures.
Agriculture is now, as it always has
been, the basis of civilization. The six
million farms of the United States,
operated by men who, as a class, are
steadfast, Single-minded, and indus
trious, form the basis of all the other
achievements of the American people
and are more fruitful than all their
other resources. The men on those
six million farms receive from the pro-
tective tariff what they most need, and
that is the best of all possible mar
kets. All other classes depend upon
the farmer, but the farmer in turn de-
ponds upon the market they furnish
him for his produce. The annual out
put of our agricultural products is
nearly four billions of dollars. Their
increase in value has been prodigious.
although agriculture has languished in
most other countries; and the main
factor in this increase is the corre-
spending increase of our manufactur-
| ing industries. American farmers
have prospered because the growth of
their market has kept pace with the
growth of their farms. The additional
cultural products by domestic manu-
| facturers has been far in excess of the
| outlet to other lands. An export trade
| in farm products is necessary to dis
pose of our surplus; and the export
trade of our farmers, both in animal
| products and in plant products, has
largely increased. Without the en-
tlarged home market to keep this SUR
| plus down, we should have to reduce
production 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 gaining even more during
this period than the manufacturer.
Long ago over-production would have
checked the marvellous development or
our national agriculture, but for the
steadily increasing demand or Ameri-
can manufacturers for farm products
required as raw materials for steadily
expanding industries. The farmer has
become dependent upon the manufac-
turer to utilize that portion OF his pro-
duce which does not go directly TO
food supply. In 1900 f1fty-two per
cent, or a little over half, of the total
value of the farm products of the ma
ton was consumed in manufacturing
industries as the raw materials or the
factories. Evidently the manufacturer
is the farmers best and most direct
customer. Moreover, the American
manufacturer purchases his farm sup
plies almost exclusively in MS own
country. Nine-tenthS or all tne raw
materials of every kind and descrip-
ton consumed in American manufac-
tories are of American production
The manufacturing establishments
tend steadily to migrate into the heart
of the great agricultural districts the
center of the manufacturing industry
in 1900 was near the middle OF ohio,
and it is moving westward at the rate
of about thirty miles in every decade;
and this movement is invariably ac-
companied by marked increase 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
but it is as certain as the
operation of any economic law, that In
the country as a whole, farm values
will continue to increase as the part
nershfp between manufacturer and
farmer grows more intimate through
further advance of industrial science
The American manufacturer never
could have placed this nation at the
head of the manufa curing nations of
the world if he had not had behind
him, securing him every variety of
raw material. the exhaustless re-
sources of the American farm. devel-
(Contjnued on Page Three.).