Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-09-13
DEFINES THE
CAMPAIGN ISSUES.
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purchasing power of the average wage
received by the wageworker has grown
faster than the cost of living, and this
in spite of the continual shortening OF
working hours. The accumulated say
ings of the worEingmen of the coun.
try, rs shown by the deposits in the
settings banks, have increased by leaps
mad bounds. At no time in the history
Of this or any other country has there
aeen an era so productive of material
Asncdt alike 10 workingman and en-
9l2Ner as during the seven years that
/. nave just passed.
The Benefits of Protection.
The farmer has benefited quite as
rlich as the manufacturer. the mer-
chant. and the wage-worker The most
Welcome and impressive fact esta blish-
"a oy 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 manufactures, and the
application of new inventions to uni
versal use. The result has been an in
creasing interdependence of agricul-
ture and manufactures Agriculture is
now. rs it always has been. the basis
of civilization The six million farms
Of tho United States, operated by men
whn. IS a class, are steadfast. single
lHinIod, and Industrious. form the
hssis Of al the other achievements of
ike American people and are more
fruitful than all their other resources
The men on those six million farms
receive from the protective tariff
THAT thew most reed. and that is the
Rest of all nossihle markets. All other
classes depend upon the farmer, but
the farmer in turn depends upon the
Talket they furnish him for his pro-
9T"c. Tic annual output of our agri
cultural products is nearly four bill
lions Of dollars. Their increase in
value has heen prodisious. although ag-
ricult're has languished in most other
countries; and the main factor in this
increase is the corresponding increase
OF orr manufacturing Industries. Amer
lean farmers have prospered because
the growth of their market has kept
pace with the growth o. their farms
The additional market continually
furnished for agricultural products by
domestic manufacturers has been far
in excess OF the outlet to other lands.
An export trade in farm products is
necessary to dispose Of our surplus;
and the export trade of our farmers,
both in animal products and in plant
products, has very largely increased.
Without the enlarged home market to
keep this surplus down, we should have
to reduce production or else feed the
world at less than the cost of produc-
lion. 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 man
ufacturer. Long ago over-production
would have checked the marvellous de-
velopment of our national agriculture,
but for the steadily increasing de-
mand of American manufacturers for
fam products required as raw mater
i2ls for steadily expanding Industries.
TheIfarmer has become dependent up
pn the manufacturer to utilize that
lGlr'ion Of his produce which does not
go directly to food supply. In 1900
GEty-two per cent. or little over half,
fl the total value of the farm products
OF the nation was consumed in manu-
featuring industries as the raw mater
iais Of the factories Evidently the
is the farmers best and
most direct customer. Moreover, the
American manufacturer purchases his
farm supplies almost exclusively in his
own country. Nine tenths of all the
raw materials of every kind and de-
scription consumed in American man
nfactories are of American production
The manufacturing establishments
tend steadily to migrate into the
heart of the great agricultural dis
tricts. The center of the manufacture
ing industry in 1900 was near the mid
die Of Ohio, and 1t is moving westward
at the rate of about thirty miles in
every decade; and this movement is in
variably accompanied by marked in
crease in the value of farm lands. Lo-
cal causes, notably the competition be-
tween new farm lands and old farm
lands, tend here and there to obscure
what is happening; but it is as GER
tain as the operation of any economic
law, that in the country as a whole
farm values will continue to increase
as The partnership between manufac-
turer 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 manufacturing nations
of the world if he had not had behind
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 Am erican farmers On
the other 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 Ameri-
can manufactures. The two indus.
tries have become, under the economic
policy of our government, SO closely
interviewer, SO mutually interdepend-
ent, that neither can hope to maintain
itself at the high-water mark of pro-
gress without the other Whatever
makes to the advantage of one is equal
ly to the advantage of the other.
$50 it is as between the capitalist
and the wage worker. Here and there