The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-11-30


dreds of thousands of artisans will as
suredly be sometime out of work.
Then your institutions will be fairly
brought to the test
The boundless extent Of fertile I'M
occupied land is gone.
We have our Manchesters and our
Birminghams by the score and in
times of great depression such as will
certainly come, our unemployed will
be numbered not by the hundreds OF
thousands but by the million.
Is it not time to take thought OF
the morrow and to make such prep
aration as may be possible against
the day of stress and test predicted
by Macaulay?
In this direction, desire to briefly
suggest two plans having a common
purpose and perhaps equal in impor-
lance.
First: The broadening and, in a
way, the specializing of our methods
of education in all our schools and col
leges. I would give no less attention
to graduating lawyers and physicians,
but would give a great deal more to
turning out of our public schools
young men with good comn,on-school
education plus years practical
training at some useful trade.
| would have first-class manual
training school attached to every high
school and to every college and uni
versity, where young men could be
turned out good. practical. journey
men blacksmiths, boilermakers, car
penters. cabinet makers, plumbers, or
skilled workmen at some other useful
trade.
would increase the capacity of
these schools to accommodate every
child in the community and then l
would make attendance compulsory
/ would make our agricultural col
leges in fact what they are in name
by limiting admission to young men
who want to study and school them
selves in scientific agriculture to the
end that graduates of these colleges
should be first-class farmers thor
oughly equipped for and vitality inte-
ested in that most honorable profes
sion.
/ realize that policy OF this kline
! viii cost Millions on millions OF mon
! ey. but nc man can estimate the cos
! in treasury and possibly In blood O
a contrary lolicy.
Second would postpone tie dal
of test foreshadowed by Lord Macau
lay by doubling our rural population
| and would do this by more than doubi
ing the product per acre of the ma
tons farms.
The United States with the mos
fertile soil and favorable climate Il
the world, but with its careless. VI
informed methods of seed selection
fertilization and cultivation, produce
an annual average yield of less tina
fourteen bushels of wheat per acrs
while England produces more tina
thirty-two: Germany about twent!
eight; the Netherlands more tina
thirty-four, and France, approximate
.ly twenty.
OF oats, the United States produce
an average annual yield Of twent,
three and seven-tenths bushels pe
acre, England forty-two, German
. forty-six. and the Netherlands fit
} three.
) The average yield of potatoes
t the United States is eighty-fve bus
r els per acre, while that OF German
a Belgium and Great Britain is two hu
bred and fifty bushels.
E Potatoes, like wheat, corn al
s bread are a food staple of the pc
man.
:, Germany, with an arabic area
l. greater than some of our large
L states produce approximately two 3
ion bushels of potaties annually wn
r. the aggregate crop OF the Unit
e States averages barely two hundr
e and seyenty-fye million bushels
o annum; and, in the year ended Ju
r. 80. 1905, We imported eight mill
u three hundred and eightyfour tho
d and bushels.
is For half a century we have prout
IS DtuQSQ OuISStfSS dD liz 5tAAt~As
"a the world and our annual exports
y food stuffs have formed the basis
X large balance of trade in our fay
r. Our exports of this character show
steady and alarmingly rapid decii
. In the past, increase in population,
- crease in consumption, have been 2
:. by multiplied acres. This is no lonl
- possible or at least only to Y
- limited and constantly diminishing
- tent. Increased consumption i'm
- future must be provided for not by
- increase in acres but by an incre
i. in the yield per acre.
e. Each year immigration and natu
~ increase add approximately two
lion hungry mouths to be fed and
- calls for an Increase of approximate
- seyenty-five million bushels OF fc
=. producing cereal per annum to sup
=. this demand.
:. In 1893 the total acreage OF c.
- wheat, oats, barley and rye was ]
49, 7sO,501, and we exported o9s,715,
" bushels. In 1907 the acreage had
creased To 1888, 900 acres, or an