The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-09-12


most other countries; and the main fac
tor in this increase is the corresponding
increase of our manufacturing industries.
American farmers have prospered be-
cause the growth of their market has
Kept pace with the growth of their farms.
The additional market continually fur
nished for agricultural products by do
nestle manufacturers has been far IN ex-
cess of the outlet 20 other lands. An
export trade In farm products is neces-
sary 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 production. In the forty
years ending in 1900 the total value of
farm property increased twelve and
half billions of dollars; the farmer gain
ing even more during this period than
the manufacturer. Long ago over-pro-
duction would have checked the marvel
GUS development of our national agricul-
ture, but for the steadily Increasing de-
mand of American manufacturers fol-
farm products required as raw materials
for 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 little over half,
of the total value of the farm products
of the nation was consumed in manu-
featuring industries as the raw materials
of the factories. Evidently the manufac-
turer is the farmers best and most d.
rect customer. Moreover, the American
manufacturer purchases his farm supplies
almost exclusively in his own country.
Nine tenths of all the ray materials OF
every kind and description consumed in
American manufactures are of American
production. The manufacturing establish
ments 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
1t Is moving westward at the rate of
about thirty miles In every decade; and
this movement is invariably accompanied
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 happening; 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
partnership between manufacturer and
farmer grows more intimate through fur
ther advance of Industrial science. The
American manufacturer never could have
manufacturing nations of the world if he
had not behind him, securing him every
variety of raw material, the exhaustless
resources of the American farm, devel-
oped by the skill and the enterprise of in
| telligent and educated American farmers
| On the other hand. the debt of the far
mers to the manufacturers is equally
| heavy, and the future of American agri-
culture is bound up in the future of
| American MAMMA ctl1raS fxUO indus.
| tries have become, under the economic
| policy of our government, so closely in
| terwoven, so mutually interdependent.
| that neither can hope to maintain itself
| at the highwater mark of progress with
out the other. Whatever makes to the
advantage of one is equally to the ad-
vantage of the other.
Capitalist and Wage Worker.
So 1t is as between the capitalist and
| the wage-worker. Here and 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 reversal in policy would
! mean damage to both; and while the
/ damage would be heavy to all, it would
be heaviest, 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
be modified from time to time to fit new
exigencies. But the genuine underlying
! principle of protection as 1t has been
embodied in all but one o. the American
! tariff laws for the last forty years, has
worked out results so beneficent so even
| ly and widely spread, so advantageous
alike to farmers and capitalists and
! workingmen, to commerce and trade of
: every kind, that the American people,
! If they show their usual practical bust
ness sense, will insist that when these
! laws are modified they shall be modified
/ with the utmost care and conservatism.
| and by the friends and not the enemies
| of the protective system. They cannot
| afford to trust the modification to those
who treat protection and robbery as syn
| onymous terms.
| In closing what have to say about the
system of promoting American Industry
| let me add a word of cordial agreement
with the policy of in some way including
| within its benefits. by appropriate legis-
lation, the American merchant marine
1t is not creditable to us as nation that
our great export and import trade should
be well nigh exclusively in the hands OF
foreigners.
1t is difficult to know II our opponents
are really sincere in their demand for
| the reduction of the army If insincere
there is no need for comment. and II
sincere, what shall we say in speaking
to rational persons of an appeal to reduce
an army of $4,000 men which Is taking
care of the interests of over S0000,000 peo-
| Pile? The army is now relatively smaller
than 1t was in the days of Washington
when on the peace establishment there
were 5000 soldiers while there were a lit
tie less than 100000 of population; small
err than it was in the peaceful days Of
! Jefferson, when there were 800 soldiers tc
| coo population. here Is now one
soldier to every 400 people in this coun-
| try-less than one-tenth of 1 per cent
| We cannot be asked seriously to argue
as to the amount of possible tyranny con-
tanned In these figures The army as it is
now is as small as it can possibly be and
serve Its purpose as effective nucleus
for the organization, equipment, and sup
ply of a volunteer army In time of need
1t Is now used as never before, for aid
ing in the upbuilding of the organized
militia of the country. The war depart
ment is engaged in a systematic effort
to strengthen and develop the national
guard in the several states; as witness
among many other instances the great
field maneuvers at Manassas, which have
just closed. If our opponents should
come into power they could not reduce
our army below it's present size without
greatly impairing its efficiency and aban.
doning part of the national duty. Ir
short. in this matter. If our opponents
should come into power they would
either have to treat this particular prom.
Use of the year 1904 as they now treat
the promises they made in 1896 and 1900
that is as possessing no binding force
or else they would have to embark on a
policy which would be ludicrous at the
moment. and fratlPu. with grave danger