The Mena weekly star., 1909-09-23
4 NOTE 0F WARNING
JAMES ]. HILL MAKES STRIKING ADDRESS TO AMERICAN BANK
 FRS ASSOCIATION.
ALL DEPENDS UPON THE FARM

Noted Railroad Man Told the Finan
 eiers That We win Become a Wheat
 importing Nation Within Ten Years
 "A Vital Question.
 snicago. sept Ib.-~ " arumg tnar me United States may soon cease to be an exporter of foodstuffs was given to the American Bankers association at the close of the first days session of the thirty-hfth annual convention of the organization by James J. Hill
 "The idea that we feed the world Is being corrected" said Mir. Hill, and unless we can increase the agricultural population and their product the question of a source of food supply at home will soon supersedo the question of a market abroad"
 "We have" said the speaker "al- most reached point where, owing to increased population without increased production per acre. our home food supplies will be insufficient for our own needs: within ten years possibly less, We are likely Co become a wheat importing nation; the percentage of the population engaged in agriculture and the wheat product per acre are both failing; at the same lime the cost of living is raised everywhere by this relative scarcity of bread by arti- lcial increase in the price of all manu faciured articles, and by habit of ex- trayagance which has enlarged the view Of both rich and poor of what are to be considered the necessaries of life. These plain facts should disturb and arouse not only the economic student but inc men who are most in- timateiy related to the wealth of the nation and most concerned that 1t shall mol suffer loss or decreases"
 MT. Hill declared that never yet has enhanced cost of living, when dne to agricultural decline and inability to supply national needs, failed to end In national disaster.
 Mr Hill said the farm is our main reliance and that every other activity depends on that He asserted how. ever. tha: the majority of people fail to realize practically the declining status of agriculture in the country They are misled by the statistics of farm values and products, mounting annual ly by great leaps. into. thinking that this absolute increase implies a rela- tive advance of this industry as com pared with others said he. Exactly the opposite is the case. l refer not merely to the quality and results of nur tillage. but to the setting of the human tide away from the cultivated field and toward the factory gate or the city slum. This Is something whose consequences for evil are as certain as if the aggregate deposits in all the banks of this country were decreasing by fixed percentage every ten years. while their loans were increased by another percentage lust as siable. You would know what catastrophe that assured by and by.
 "It means the same thing. in kind and consequences. when the agricul- tural population. the producers. and aepositors in the great national treas ury of wealth. is declining veal by year, while the city population. which thrives only by drawing drafts upon the land and cannot live a year after these cease to be honored. rises at It's expense. Yet not only is such B crisis approaching, but 1t Is being hastened by legislative stimulation in favor of other industries while over. hooking this