The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-28
FRon OTHER PENS
THE CoUNTRY's EXPORTS.


The merchandise exports of the
United States have been increasing SO
rapidly in recent times that the per
capita grows from year to year Fast
as population is expanding our ex-
ports are growing faster still. They
amount now to S20.41 per man.
woman and child of the population.
But the exports of several of the
other countries are much greater pro-
portionately. Those of the United
Germany's of $2S, Frances of $34,
while some Of the smaller countries,
like Switzerland and Belgium, leave us
far behind on the per capita basis.
Canada likewise Is ahead of us on this
point.
This is Of no particular consequence
except in an agreement for an extern
sion Of our trade. SO as to give more
work to our industries. The reason
why many other and much poorer
countries beat us in the proportion
of their products which they export is
that our people consume far more at
home than do other peoples. In the
Investigation of our industries which
thetariff system has brought we have
placed mills in all the farming regions,
and in this way we have built up a
home demand for farm and factory
products which is far more profitable
than is the foreign market. This is
one Of the triumphs of Republican
policy.
Nevertheless, the time has come
when intelligent effort on a large scale
to enlarge our foreign markets must
be made. The recent business scare
emphasized that necessity. Our i'm
ports sharply dropped last December,
while our exports increased. Ever
since then the imports are at figures
much below those of year ago, but
our exports also have fallen in the
| no OF mr. increasing for
eign market is more necessary in
times of Industrial stagnation. like the
present. than in days OF great bust
ness activity.-St. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat.
THE MAN AT THE SOURCES.
After the tumult and the shouting
for conservation Of the nations re-
sources, Prof. L. H. Bailey, of the Col
lege of Agriculture at Cornell, asks
mildly: What shall we do with the
small farmer? In the current number
Of the Independent he says: There
are many persons who are waiting to
know what forces the great con-
ference will set in motion to reach
and quicken the man at the sources"
The small farmer holds in his con-
serving or destroying hand the fate Of
our great waterways, whose springs
are on his property. He is at the
sources of our future foodstuffs. and
he maybe does--ignorantly i'm
poverish them cit is more import
ant that we develop small power on a
million farms than that we organize
power companies or harness
Niagara" Professor Bailey insists
He is undeniably right.
| But will the farmers of the nation
receive the new gospel? Colleges and
experimental stations have sprung up,
yet statistics show plainly enough that
Farmer Brown still crops his land in
a wasteful fashion, gathering one
half the harvest that moderately in
telligent management would insure.
while his son John has left the home
stead for life in the city. Perhaps
| the son can be induced to return. How
many of the bulletins issued from the
experiment station at Ithaca, full of
promptings to supplant the old rural
system with the new, arrive at city adj
dresses? More susceptible to re-
generating influences than the old men
at the sources are the young men who
are not at the sources, but who should
| be there. Without them a foreign
race will enter and possess the land
/ New York Times.