The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-09-23
HILL WOULD EXTEND THE FARM.
He Fears the United States viii Cease to
Export FoodstufEs Unless More Attention
Is Given tn Adricillfure

Export Foodstuffs Unless More Attention
Is Given to Agriculture.
CHICAGO, September Is. Warning that
the United States may soon cease to be
an exporter of foodstuffs was given to
the American Bankers Association yes
terday by James j. Hill, chairman of the
board of Great Northern Railway. All
through the address Mr.. Hill sought to
impress on the banker delegates that
future prosperity is to come in the de-
velopment Of agriculture rather than in
an extension Of foreign markets for
manufactured goods.
1.-THE idea that we feed the world is
being corrected; and unless we can in
crease the agricultural population and
their product, the question Of source
of food supply at home will soon super
sede the question of market for our
own products abroad" was the warning
given by James J. Hill, during discus
sion of the decline of agriculture and it's
National Wealth and the Farm"
''We have" said he, "almost reached
point where, owing to increased popu-
acre, our home food supply will be in
years, possibly less, we are likely to be-
come wheat-importing nation; the per-
centage of the population engaged in ag-
riculture and the wheat product per acre
are both falling; at the same time the
cost of living is raised everywhere by
this relative scarcity Of bread, by arti-
fetal increase in the price of all manu-
featured articles, and by a habit of ex-
travagance which has enlarged the view
of both rich and poor of what are to be
considered the necessities of life"
Mr.. Hill said the farm is our main re-
lance and that every other activity de-
ponds on that. He asserted, however,
that the majority Of people fail to realize
practically the declining status of agri-
culture in the country. ''They are misled
by the statistics of farm values and prod
ucts, mounting annually by great leaps,
into thinking that this absolute increase
implies relative advance of this indus
try as compared with Others" he said.
Exactly the opposite is the case"
''In 1890 only about "a per cent of the
American people lived in towns. At the
time of the Civil War the percentage
had risen to sixteen. In 1900 more than
81 per cent of our population was urban.
The change is portentous, and there is
no doubt that the coming census will
show it to have proceeded in the last ten
years with accelerated speed. With our
annual increase of over LIS per cent in
population from natural causes, and
immigration that has not been less than
three-quarters Of million any year since
1902, there will be from two to two and
one-half million more mouths to feed
every year.
"a stationary 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 55.6 per cent with board,
compel such 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 the inroads of the
foreigner as to keep it from destruction
by an enlarged city life and neglected
country life, a crowded artisan popula-
ton clamoring for food and a foreign
demand for the product Of their wages
limited to fields where the competition of
all the world must be met and overcome.
world increase by probably from four to
country we shall require from 10000
to $1,000, 900 bushels more annually for
seed and home consumption. The do
nestle supply cannot be maintained by
present methods. In New York State
10000 farms are for sale.
1.-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 sup
plying to industry the means to carry it
on, who open up the main and lateral
channels through which the fertilizing
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"
attention by the delegates.