The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-10-17
JIM HILL Is

The agricultural situation is still
being ''viewed with alarm" by Jane:
]. Hill, president of the Great North
ern railroad. Mr.. Hill recently
warned the public, in his speech de-
livered at the Minnesota state fair,
that American farmers are n~eglectine
their business, and now a similar in
dictment Is made in an address before
a commercial association in Chicago;
After reviewing the progress made
in the northwest for the past fifty
years, Mr.. Hill said: 'The first busi.
ness and the highest duty Of the north.
west is to prepare for the burden and
heat of the coming day, and to post
pone the lengthening OF the shadows
that must surely fall. Within certain
limits we may know exactly what is to
happen in this country and the north
west, il forces now operative and in
~tluences now acting are unchecked
Briefly, these are the %certainties Of
the X fifty years, supported by facts
ascertained beyond possibility of err.
ror. BY the middle of this century,
within the lifetime of thousands now
living, our population will be more
than two hundred million. Where
are these people to find profitable oc.
cupatiou: How are they to obtain
the necessaries Of life? The question
is always pressing upon great cities
like Chicago, where immigration con-
centrates. But these newcomers can.
scarce, wages were never as high as
at the present time.
1--WE cannot stop the inflow or check
the natural increase. We must deter.
mine, however, upon an economy diff
ferent from the present when our pop.
ulation is approaching three times
what it was in 1900. Striking as has
been found the contrast between 1850
and 1900, that between the present and
1850 will reveal serious features.
Practically speaking, our public lands
r all occupied. The irrigation of
land by the general government will
do something, but when all the present
plans are completed they will furnish
land for fewer than 1900. 600 small
farms of forty acres each, or for a
population Of sever or eight million
persons. Our other natural resources
have been exploited with q lavish
hand. Our exports, OF which we love
to boast, consist mostly of the pro-
ducts OF the soil. Our iron and coal
supplies will begin to show signs OF
exhaustion before fifty years have
passed. The former, at the present
rate of increasing production, will be
greatly reduced. Our forests are
rapidly going, our vast supply OF
mineral oil flows to the ends of the
earth. We cannot continue to supply
the whole world and recruit our own
resources by the methods of trade that
now obtain, because the minerals
stored in the ground do not ate
themselves.
Ia some things we are going back.
ward. The soil Is impoverished by
careless Treatments; forests are cut
down that the sun may bake and the
floods scour it into the ocean. 1t has
been cropped with grain year after
year until the productive power in
some of the richest portions of the
country has deteriorated fully fifty
per cent. The census returns report q
decrease in farm values ia a number of
states. A change in agricultural
methods is what il needed. To a re.
alization OF our position to a return
to agriculture, to q jealous care OF
our land both as q quality
and quantity and to o mode of cult
walton that shall at once multiply tn.
yield per acre and restore instead OF
destroying productive qualities, vi
must come to it without delay if ",
are to escape disaster"