The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-09-21
JAMES J. HILLS WARNING.

JAMES j. HILLS WARNING.
James ]. Hill. the great railroad
owner and one of the most thoughtful
men of this generation, made a notable
address at the Minnesota state fair I'm
st. Paul recently. The keynote of his
warning is in this sentence: There
must be a national revolt against the
worship of manufacturing and trade as
the only forms of progressive activity
and the false notion that the wealth
built upon these at the sacrifice OF the
fundamental form of wealth production
can endure" Continuing, he declares
the first requisite lis q clear recogni-
ton on the part Of the whole people
from the highest down to the lowest,
that the tfllage OF the soil is the nat
ural and most desirable occupation for
man, TO which every other is subsidiary
and to which all else must in the end
yield
Giving reasons for his warning, Mr..
! Hill declared agriculture in this coun-
try was a mere scratching Of the soil
I
to yield by the most rapidly exhausting
methods, and he declared further that
the most remarkable achievement of
this age as the incredible activity with
which we are exhausting our inherit
ance of iron and coal" He believes the
United States will have to meet the
wants of two hundred million people
within forty-four years, and that by
1850 our iron supply will have been ex-
| hausted.
So far as his emphasis on the basic
productive power of agriculture is con-
cerned, no one will question the force
of the warning. The nation has been
controlled by manufactures. its tariff
legislation has compelled agriculture to
bear a very heavy and unjust proper
ton of the burden of supporting manu-
features, and the farmers of the coun-
try have not yet learned the beginnings
of a scientific cultivation of the soil.
Here in the west more progress has
been made than in any other section,
and that because the area OF arabic
land was small and intensive culture
has been a necessity. to meet which
. small holdings have been worked on
modern methods.
When it comes to his predictions as
will doubt the entire accuracy of Mr..
Hills prophecy. In Utah alone there
are iron deposits of such tremendous
extent as to warrant the belief they
equal even the great fields of northern
Michigan and Minnesota. The esti-
mates place the total tonnage of iron
ore in Iron county, this state, at in
credible figures. In Carbon county,
within hundred miles Of Salt Lake. is
an almost equally great deposit Of coal.
Some OF 1t is now utilized for coke with
which the valley smelters are supplied,
and the experts believe further cooking
veins will be uncovered with explora-
ton. Wyoming and Colorado both have
great coal and iron deposits and the
new Moffat road i'm Colorado is expect
ed to bring into market some Of the
best coal fields in America. California
has iron in very large quantities, other
parts of the west claim TO have similar
iron fields so that the west ought to be
in position to supply the country for a
good many years after the limit set by
Mr.. Hill. 1t is true the cost of develop
ing and transporting the western ores
may be comparatively high as against
the cost of the Mesaba ores, for in
stance, with their cheap lake trans
portation; but the supply is here, and
with coking coal available, the center
of iron manufacture may move west
ward as time progresses.
The main theme of the address, the
dignity and power of agriculture as the
chief factor in national wealth and
greatness. cannot be emphasized toe
much or too often. In that particular
Mr.. Hill has done the nation a service
and sounded a note of warning tha
ought to be needed.