The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-09-26
GO BACK TO THE LAND,
SAYS JAMES ]. HILL
Future of Nation Menaced by Rush
From Farms to Cities.
POINTS OUT DANGER SIGNALS

Stirling Address at Minnesota State
Fair on Present-Day Conditions
Serious Labor Famine-Farm-
crs Seek Help in Vain.
st. Paul, Minn.-James j. Hill,
president of the Great Northern Rail
road, at the Minnesota State Fair told
the American people, in an address
which may be memorable, that they
must get back to the land, and make
a better economic use Of it il they
want to prevent great crisis and
save millions of Americans from fu-
ture grinding want. There was a
good deal of what people call pessi-
mism in Mr.. Hills speech.
The menacing conditions which,
Mr. Hill pointed out, the country
was rapidly approaching by reason
of the strong tendency of population
from the farms to the already con.
gested cities, attracted q great deal
of attention from a vast audience.
His speech, in part, follows:
Notwithstanding the addition OF
more than 100000 people year
from abroad, nearly all Of them men
and women who must work for a liv-
ing, labor outside of the cities was
never as scarce or wages as high as
at the present time. Immigration
fingers in the great centres and adds
to the difficulties attending employ
ment. The farms stretch out their
hands in vain. Railroads in making
extensions have to get help at the
highest market price, and find large
percentage of those whom they EN-.
ploy mere hoboes, who desert as soon
as they have succeeded in getting
transportation from one part Of the
country to another.
Farmers besiege the employment
agencies in vain, and offer the lazy
tramp a sum for a days work in the
field unheard of in any other country
in the world. The situation grows
more embarrassing yearly. Hours OF
labor are being reduced in some or
the States for farm as we'll as shop
hands. Men are scarcer as the move
ment Of populationto to the cities grows
more pronounced. A considerable
portion of this years magnificent
crop will be either reduced in quality
or altogether lost by reason of the
impossibility OF getting labor to han
die it properly.
1.-The country needs more workers
on the soil. Not to turn the stranger
away, but to direct him to the farm
instead of the city; not to watch
with fear a possible increase OF the
birth rate, but to use every means to
keep the boys on the farm and to
send youths from the city to swell
the depleted ranks of agricultural In
dustry, is the necessary task or 4
well-advised political economy and an
intelligent patriotism.
within twenty years we must
house and employ in some fashion
50,O00,000 additional population, and
by the middle of this century there
will be approximately two and half
times as many people in the United
States as there are to-day.
"Our one resource, looking at hu-
manity as something more than the
creature of a day, is the productivity
of the soil. The reckless distribution
Of the public land, its division among
ali the greedy who choose to ask for
it, the appropriation OF large areas
for grazing purposes, have ABSORBED
much of the national heritage.
Certain it is that the time has
come for setting our household in Or
der and creating q serious study OF
national activity and economy ac-
cording to truer insight and more
rational mood.
"Let US be warned in time. On
every side there is menace If our ma
tional activity be not reorganIzed on
the basis of the old-fashioned COM
mon sense. The safety valve for old
ar peoples has been found in emlgra-
ton. Their very relief has contrib
uted to our danger. The united
States cannot follow their example.
"The conclusion reached points out
and emphasizes national duty so
imminent and imperative that IL
should take precedence or all else.
It is the foe that has oyerthroWn CIV
ilizations rs proud, as prosperous.
and far more strongly fortified than
our own Nothing can stop the on
ward march of natures laws, or close
the iron Jaws of her necessities when
they open to crush their victims.
''If we are to walk safely III the
way of wisdom there is much to DO
done. It Is time to begin. There
must be, first, return to conserva-
tive and economic methods. read
iustment Of national ideas such as TO
place agriculture, and its claims 10
the best intelligence and the highest
skill that the country affords. IN the
very forefront. There must be q ma.
tional revolt against the worship or
manufacture and trade as the only
forms Of progressive activity. and the
false notion that wealth built upon
these, at the sacrifice Of the tunda'
mental form OF wealth production
can endure. A clear recognition on
the part Of the whole people, from
the highest down to the lowest that
the tillage of the soil is the natural
and most desirable occupation tor
man. to which every other is subsid-
iary and to which all else must IN
the end yield, Is the first requisite
The country. in mere self-preserVa-
tion, must give serious attention TO
the practical occupation of restoring
agriculture to its due position IN the
nation"