The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1906-10-12
i'm J. HILLS SPEECH
1FIls CHICAGO COMMERCIAL
Club What he THINKS.
u,r+bwest Must Pave Way for Vast
,nf,ux-Our Highest Duty Is to Post
none Day of Shadows - Economic
chanoes-System of Waste Menaces
the Nation-Intensified Farming.

Chicago, OCT. flames j. Hill,
nresident of the Great Northern rail
uav was the principal speaker Satur-
dav night at the banquet at the Audi
torium hotel under the auspices of
tho Commercial association. His
theme was The Development of the
Northwest" and his remarks were
greeted with applause because of the
GREAT deal in ore lands which he clos
cd recently in behalf of the Great
Northern Railway.
David E. FOrgan, president of the
Commercial association, presided at
the banquet, which was attended by
about $50 members of the association
and their friends. Sir Thomas Upton
was one of the chief guests of the
evening. Other speeches were:
conquest of Ine Pacific" Congress-
man George E. Foss, and "San Fran
CISCO" by Ernest F. Bicknell. Mr.
Bicknell represented the Chicago Com
mercial association in the relief meas
ures at San Francisco after the earth
u
quake.
After reviewing the progress made
in the northwest in the past so years,
Mr.. Hill said:
'The first business and the highest
duty of the northwest is to prepare for
the burden and heat of the coming day
and to postpone the frightening of the
shadows that must surely fall. With
in certain limits we may know exactly
what is to happen in this country and
the northwest if forces now operative
and if tendencies now active are I'M
checked These, briefly, are the GER
tainties of the next so years, support
ed by facts ascertained beyond pos
sibility of error. BY the middle of
his century, within the life time of
thousands now living, our population
will be more than 2OO,0O0,Ovv. Where
are these people to find profitable &C.
cupation? How are they to obtain the
necessities of life? The question is
always pressing upon great cities like
Chicago, where immigration concen-
trates. But these newcomers can not
be excluded. Labor was never as
scarce, wages were never as high as
at the present day. We can not stop
the inflow or check the natural in
crease. We must determine, however,
upon an economy different from the
present, when our population is ap-
preaching three times what it was in
1900. Striking as has N found the
contrast between 1850 and 1900, that
between the present and 1850 will re-
veal more serious features. Practi-
cally speaking, our public lands are all
occupied.
Irrigation Will Assist.
"The irrigation of lands by the gen.
eral government will do something,
but when all the present plans are
completed, they will furnish land for
fewer than 100000 small farms of 40
acres each, or for population of
seven or eight million people. Our
other natural resources have been ex-
plotted with a lavish hand. Our ex-
ports, of which we love to boast, con-
sist mostly of the products of the soil.
Our iron and coal supply will begin to
show signs of exhaustion before so
years have passed. The former at the
present rate of increasing the produc-
ton, will be greatly reduced. Our for
ests are rapidly going, our vast supply
OF mineral oil flows to the ends of the
earth. We can not continue to sup
ply the whole world and recruit our
own resources by the methods of trade
mat now obtain, because the minerals
stored in the ground do not recreate
themselves. Once used they are gone
forever. We shall, with these coming
millions to provide for, be thrown
oack upon the soil, the only resource
ol mankind that it capable of infinite
renewal and that offers life for gen
Grafton after generation. The period
of ransacking the national storehouse
u see what can be sent over seas and
soid must be changed to an era in
which we shall consider the preserva-
uon and improvement of what is, fun
uamentally, our chief maintenance.
Or upon the cultivation of the soil and
oil varied commercial activity, intriS-
BIC or intact, is mainly built; and upon
1t depends the future of mankind, and
me nature and stability of it's institu-
tons.
In some things we are going back,
WARD. The soil of the country is be-
lug impoverished by careless treat
nent Forests are cut down that the
Gun may make it and the floods scour
II INTO the ocean. 1t has been cropped
win the same grain year after year,
until Its productive power in some OF
"e richest portions of the country has
ue'eriorated fully so per cent. The
''ehsus returns show an actual de.
,rease in farm values in a large num-
'ef OF the states. 1t is easily demon
suated that reform of methods OF
.uitvation would double the agricul'
'ural production each year, adding to
'ne whole country from $4,000, ,OOO
u s6,O00,00O,0OO to the national
wealth, while the resort of small
iarms and the adoption of the inten'
q