The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-09-15
AMERICAS JOSEPH.


and student, promises to be the
Joseph of America Ignoring the
petty questions. which agitate the
mentally near-sighted, he sticks to
the one supreme material question or
living. and stands pat upon the
proposition that the food supply of
nations is the greatest economical
question the greatest minds Of the
age can consider.
At the meeting Of the American
Bankers association at Chicago yes
terday, Mr.. Hill spoke of the agri-
cultural outlook and his words made
the intricate questions of business
methods, discussed by other eminent
authorities. seem little.
He said:
There are few more interesting
chapters in history than those detail
ing the relation between Industrial
development, the food supply and the
growth and decline of political in
situations and national greatness
Civilization Is mostly the story of
the triumph OF the human stomach IN
its struggle for food equal to the
work of physical and mental evolu-
ton. Events and epochs that pug
zled the historians of the past are
explained by a study of common hu-
man experience. An economical
cycle runs through all the affairs OF
men from the earliest times. There
is a period of Misunderstanding, in
which agriculture is the accepted re
source OF the state. and national
strength is built upon It, Then the
demand for an enlarged life stimu-
lates the manufacturing and the
commercial interests, and there en-
sues a period of great prosperity
which sees the rise of great fortunes
the relative decline OF the food sup
ply, the introduction Of luxury, the
growth of Incidence and a universal
increase in prices. Never yet has
this enhanced cost of living, when
due to agricultural decline and in
ability to supply national needs
failed to end in & national disaster
Professor Ferrero. in HIS story of
The Greatness and Decline of
Rome, after describing the agricult-
ural depression OF Italy, the ruin OF
her peasantry and the distress Of all
classes that followed. attributes II
simply TO the increased cost of liv-
ing This. rather than imperial am
bition or race, decay, Is the key by
which history unlocks the secrets Of
the past.
"Once the valley OF the Euphrates
was earth's garden spot. Its great
ness passed with the deterioration OF
its soil. When Greece was at the
summit of her power. her ambition
was to capture the grain trade by
holding sway over the Black Sea and
the Bosphorus. Even in good sea
sons Attiea is said TO have been
obliged to import about 1 200, 600
bushels of wheat. Every one OF the
great nations Of antiquity guided its
foreign relations and directed its in
vasions and conquests with a view TO
obtaining an adequate food supply
That was the value OF Egypt to the
Roman empire. That determined
her policies in the east. Spain in
her greatness secured the world for
the food which her own soil had
ceased to yield With the decline of
agriculture every one of these ma
lions lost its leadership and either
disappeared or remains mere
name.
"If, in a population of loo. 00J.-
900 people, which we shall have
shortly, as per cent. are engaged in
agriculture, then $4,000, 900 people
are calling upon the labor of $4,000
00J for clothing, professional serv-
Ice, commercial help, tools and fur
niture and all the smaller comforts
and Injuries. II, instead. the agri
cultural percentage is reduced to 80
only 30,O0OsO00 people instead of
As 5000 people make such de-
mands. while 7O.0GJ,OO0 instead of
So ,00O, 900 compete in supplying
them. A stationery or declining
product, a soil becoming annually
less productive, a revolt against the
life of the farm and a consequent
rise in wages amounting, since 1895
to $50 per cent. for ordinary day
labor on the farm without board and
GLIB per cent. with board, compel
such a rise of all prices as bears
ruinously upon town and country
alike. Our real concern Is not so
much to save the home market from
inroads OF the foreigner as to keep
II from destruction by an enlarged
city life and a neglected country life
a crowded artisan population clamor-
ing for food and a foreign demand
for the product Of their wages linn
tied TO fields, where the competition
of all the world must be met and
overcome
THE situation, then, sums itself
up thus: We have almost reached a
point where, owing to increased pop
ulation without increased production
per acre. our home food supply will
be insufficient for our own needs;
within ten years possibly less, We
are likely to become a wheat-im-
porting nation"