Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-15

man iuofNNN any gNoA lAAIb AgVGt AhtIb NIL
be from 100000 to $500, 900 more mouths
to feed every year. Having in view this
increase in population. the declining aver
age yield per acre Of cultivated land in
the United States after 1t has been farmed
for a few years, the rise of per capita con-
sumption with a higher cost Of living and
the movement of the working population
ava from the land, the time is now APP
preaching when we shall not only cease to
be a wheat selling nation. but will find
It necessary to import a portion Of what
we consume
Adverse Trade Balance,
Our foreign trade In the past has rested
mainly on our exports of products drawn
from the earth directly. or only once ro-
moved. Our manufactures for exports are
to a large extent natural products sub
jected to a few simple processes. How are
we to meet the immense trade balance
against us, how prevent financial storms
of frequent occurrence and destructive
force, how feed the coming millions, II the
farmer, who pays most of the bills, has
retired to the city or the country town in
order that his children may the better
enjoy their automobiles and enter into the
delights of the social gamer
"A stationary or declining product, a
VI bCCoAAAAilB ANNUALLY lthh pIbuuCNiNos y
revolt against the life of the farm and a
consequent rise In wages amounting, since
1895, to $50 per cent with board, compel
such a rise of all prices as bears ruinously
upon town and country alike.
The consumers of bread throughout the
world increase by probably from 1000, 900 to
5,O00,O0 every year. In our own country
we shall require from 13,OO0,O 1000 to Is. 600, 900
bushels more annually for seed and home
consumption. The domestic supply cannot
be maintained by present methods. Not
only is the cultivation OF the soil being
neglected, but It is also VIGOROUSLY in
effective. Our wheat product per acre
from the older lands falls steadily. Our
national average is less than half
that Of England or Germany, both of
which ave soil inferior TO our own. Only
by bringing rich new land under cultiva-
ton have we prevented the fall from be-
coming abrupt. Good farms in the Mo-
hawk valley in New York state forty years
ago were worth from 800 to $3.50 per acre;
now many are sold at from S25 to $50. This
is not because wheat has become cheap.
for it is dear; not entirely because of west
ern competition, but because there Is
neither good cultivation nor enough Gull
tivation.
Many Farms Worn Out,
The younger generation throngs the
I cities; and the land, rented by its owners
to tenants careless OF everything but i'm
mediate profit, is abused and robbed Of
its fertility. In New York state 10000
farms are for sale. The southern central
portion shows a progressive loss Of popu-
lation. II anybody imagines that this pro-
cess of exhaustion and abandonment or
transfer to other uses is peculiar to the
east, let hin look at Iowa, whose average
wheat crop in the five years, 1sss-s7 was
%. $751; $50 bushels and in the five years
1S04-s was 1876, 4SS bushels. In 1908 II was
S,O6S, 900
Practically only a few months lie be-
tween a universal cessation Of production
and the destruction Of the human race by
starvation. The marvellous diversity of
modern Industry and its products blinds
us to the bare simplicity of the situation.
Those who. like you, are main factors in
supplying TO industry the means to carry
IL on, who open up the main and lateral
channel through which the fertilizinR
stream Of capital may be turned upon the
otherwise barren field OF labor. should be
always mindful of the first great source
and storehouse Of national wealth. and
the most sensitive whenever it is depleted
or endangered"
Address of Speaker cannon.
Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, addressing
the convention at the close Of the morning
session, declared the law enacted after the
panic Of 1907 uhe Vreeland-Aldrich aeD,
was not perfect, but had good results
He said that when congress met II was
besieged with currency experts, each
doubling the orthodoxy OF the other.
Il believe said Speaker Cannon. that
the only fault OF the enacted law Is that
II only lasts six years. II Is not perfect
but il can be made perfect. II that law
had been on the statute books there would
never have been a suspension OF business
In 1907 with its issuance OF clearing house
cerifieateA~