The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-10-19
Average American FAIRIES Bet
ter Than Queen Eliza
beth Did
Secretary Wilson. of Agriculture,
Gives some Information About
Our Conditions.
THE POLICY OF PROTECTION

Washington, d. c., oct l9.--"Our
American workingmen today fare bet
ter than Queen Elizabeth did," said
Secretary Wilson, chief CT the gov
ernment department of agriculture,
In explaining the extraordinary de-
velopment of farming in the United
States. Queen Bess Couldn't begin
to buy things which are found on
the table every day in the home Of
prosperous American workingmen. He
has the best cuts of meat. the choic-
est potatoes, and a wealth of fruit
and vegetables which the queen of
England, with all her money and in
fluence, could not possibly have Sc
cured a few generations ago"
"Our FARMS" said the secretary
were never as valuable as today, in
spite of a reduction in a number Of
the most profitable crops. This has
been a variegated year. Production
has decreased in many respects, and
Yet the general run of prices has been
such that farmers are overwhelmed
with their own prosperity. | esti-
mated last year a general farm pro-
duction OF more than Sc, 500, 900
The total will run a good deal over
$1,000 200, 600 this year. The farm
err is prosperous chiefly because
in the cities are all en-
ployed at high wages. Laboring men
are getting much better prices for
their work than ever before, and the
result is they are spending their mon
ey for better living than they were
ever accustomed to, and far better
than is the lot OF the laboring man in
any other nation in the world.
Justifies Policy of Protection.
''The Republican policy of .protec-
ton of the laborer and the manufact-
urer has been more than justified by
the results of the last ten years, so
that now the skilled laborer in GER
tain favored lines OF mechanics. who
needs only a few years preparation
for his work. is frequently better
paid than lower grade professional
men. who have to put in years Of
study before they are competent to
undertake their specialized work"
1T is. of course. true " said Secre-
tary Wilson, who Is recognized as the
greatest expert in the world on ag-
.ricultural problems, that We have
surplus farm products and are able
TO dispose of them abroad. The time
seems TO be rapidly approaching. how
ever, when we may not be able to
keep pace with the demands of our
increased population. The farmer
has been enabled to meet the demand
made upon him IN spite of the scar
city of labor in agricultural districts,
by the use OF improved machinery. If
farms were run as they used to be
run there would be a terrible deficit
today in our food supply. The farm
Ter now, however, is adopting new
methods and the latest machinery
Where l used two light horses my
boys on the farm now have four
heavy ones, and where l plowed one
|furrow they pillow two. Their harrows
are two or three times as wide and
they use machinery which was not
Ieven dreamed of two or three years
ago. We used TO cut our hay with a
narrow mower, dried it, tossed it into
;ocks, laborlously pitchforked it on
wagon, and ultimately threw 1t into
la haymow or stacked 1t my hand
Now a wagon drives across a field
with a loader trailing behind 1t. Ma
lchinery throws the spread out hay Oh
a wagon, which is driven to the barn
where powerful tongs will bite out
half a load at a time ami dispose OF
lit almost without human labor.
Machinery Offsets Labor Scarcity.
"Use of all this labor saving ma
lchinery on the farm has enabled pro-
duction to keep reasonable pace with
increase in population, thus offsetting
the scarcity of labor caused by the
fact that men are attracted to large
cities, where they pay prices for work
Win NulCh thS lai ih1i tAhAOl poool-
IDLY compete.
Few understand the extent to
(which the prosperity of the farmer
has gone. II sounds like a fairy tale,
and yet it is true, that farmers of the
west and cotton growers of the south
today are supplying money to run
big business houses of Broadway.
The farmer does not speculate in
stocks. He has learned to hang on
10 his product at times, and his
means of marketing are better than
they used to be. but he is not person
Tally interested in the rise or fall of
stock values in the east, and he can
generally supply the money to move
his own crops nowadays. Crop NOV
ng money is frequently only a return
10 the west OF funds loaned to the
east by the farmers themselves"
Taboo Wheat for Corn and Cattle.
Speaking of the change in agricult-
lural conditions in the west, Secretary
Wilson said: Farmers in Illinois and
Iowa can no longer AFFORD to raise
wheat in large quantities. II is more