The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1909-09-16
DANGER THAT THREATENS
THE FUTURE Of AMERICA
Railroad Magnate j. J. Hill Tells Bankers of
Impending Dangers Following Desertion of the
Country For the City---A Real Peril Painted in
Forceful Style

q
wheat-selling nation, but will find it
necessary to import q portion Of
what we consume.
Basis Of Our Foreign Trade
"Our foreign trade in the past
products drawn from the earth di-
rectly, or only once removed. Our
manufactures for export are to a
large extent natural products sub
jected to few simple processes.
trade balance against US, how pre-
vent financial storms of FREQUENT oc-
currence and destructive force; how
feed the coming millions, If the far
mer, who pays most Of the bills, has
town in order that his children may
the better enjoy their automobiles
and enter into the delights of the
social games.
"A stationary or declining pro-
duct. soil becoming annually less
productive, revolt against the life
or the farm and consequent rise in
wages amounting, since 1895, to
55.6 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
the inroads Of the foreigner as to
keep 1t from destruction by an en-
larged city life and a neglected
country life, q crowded artisan pop
ulation clamoring for food and a
foreign demand for the product or
their wages limited to fields where
the competition Of all the world
must be met and overcome.
THE consumers Of bread through
out the world increase by probably
from four to five millions every
year. In our own country we shall
require from 100000 to 15,OOO,-
600 bushels more annually for seed
and home consumption. The domes-
tic supply cannot be maintained by
present methods. Not only Is the
cultivation Of the soil being neglect
ed, but 1T is also VIGOROUSLY inef-
fectlve. 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 have soil
inferior to our own. Only by bring
Ing rich new land under cultivation
have we prevented the fall from
becoming abrupt. Good farms in
the Mohawk valley in New York
state forty years ago were worth
from 800 to $50 per acre; now
many are sold mt from $25 to $50.
This Is not because wheat has be-
come cheap, for it Is dear: not en-
t1rely because Of western competi-
ton, but because there Is neither
good cultivation nor enough Gull
tivation. The younger generation
throngs the cities; and the land,
rented by it's owners to tenants care
less Of everything but Immediate
profit, 1s abused and robbed Of it's
fertility. In New York state 10000
farms are for sale. The southern
central portion shows a progressive
loss of population. If anybody
imagines that this process Of ey-
haustion and abandonment or trans
fer to other uses Is peculiar to the
East, let him look at Iowa, whose
average wheat crop in the last five
years, 1883-87, was 29,682,56O
bushels, and in the five years,
19O4-08, was 9,976,488 bushels. In
1908 it was 8,068,OOO.
Effect On the Farmer
All this has come about notwith-
standing economic changes favorable
TO the occupant Of the farm. The
perfection OF our transportation sys-
tenn has made a market accessible
10 every farmer, and carries his
produce at the lowest rates in the
world. His life has become more
comfortable and desirable. But the
Increased cost Of living bears most
hardly upon him, while it entices
his children to the centers where
they think that the larger income
now found necessary may be won
more easily. And while the en-
HANGED price Of grain may induce
him to enlarge his wheat acreage, it
does not lead him to more careful
tillage.
"You deal with wealth In its most
condensed and universal form. That
wealth is the slow accretion Of
many centuries. 1t changes It's
form and occupation with wonderful
FACILITY; but, SO slight at all times
1s the margin between the worlds
production and its consumption,
that It's savings have been acquired
almost as slowly and painfully az
IHe uISeF nOaTQ. PraCt1Cally only
a few months lie between @ univer-
sal cessation Of production and the
destruction of the human race by
starvation. The marvellous diver
sity Of modern industry and its pro-
ducts blinds US to the bare simple
1ty Of the situation. Those who.
like you, are main factors in supply
ing to industry the means to carry
1T on. who open up the main and
lateral channels through which the
fertiltzing stream Of capital may be
turned upon the otherwise barren
field of labor, should be always
Of the first great source and
8torehouse Of national wealth, and
the most sensitive whenever it Is
depleted or endangered"
"HY