The daily sentinel., 1909-09-15
MORE FARMS
SAYS HILL
IN WARNING
IRr Assnciated Press. /

ricultural population and their pro
duet, the question of a source OF food
supply at home will soon supersede
the question of market for our own
products abroad.
This was the warning given by
! James ]. Hin at the convention OF
the American Bankers Association
| yesterday during discussion Of de
cline of agriculture and its conse-
quences. Mr.. HilIs subject was
National Wealth and the Farm.
I'VE have" said the speaker, al
most reached a point where. owing TO
| increased population without in
creased production per acre, our home
food supply will be insufficient for
our own needs. within ten years, pos
sibly less, we are likely to become a
wheat-importing nation; the per
centage of the population engaged in
agriculture and the wheat product
per acre are both falling; at the same
| time the cost of living is raised ev-
erywhere by this relative scarcity OF
bread, by artificial increase in the
price of all manufactured articles.
and by a habit of extravaganza which
has enlarged the view of both rich
and poor of what are to be consid
cred the necessaries of life These
not only the economic student but the
men who are most intimately related
to the wealth of the nation and most
concerned that il shall not suffer loss
or decreases.
Mr.. Hill declared that never yet
has enhanced cost of living. when due
to agricultural decline and inability
| to supply national needs, failed to
end in national disaster.
Mr. Hill said that the farm is our
main reliance and that every other
activity depends on that. He assert
ed however that the majority of the
people fail to realize practically the
declining status of agriculture in the
country. They are misled by the
statistics of farm values and pro-
ducts, mounting annually by great
leaps. into thinking that this abso-
lutte increase implies IA relative ad-
vance of this industry as compared
with others" said he. Exactly the
opposite is the case. l refer not mere
ly to the quality and results of our
tillage, but to the setting of the hu-
man 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 a fixed percentage ev-
cry ten years, while their loans were
increasing by another percentage
| iust as stable. You would know
what catastrophe that assured by and
/ by.
ut means the same thing, in kind
and consequences, when the agricul-
tural population, the producers and
depositors in the great national treas
1 ury of wealth, is declining year byI
year. while the city population, which
thrves only by drawing drafts upon
the land and cannot live a year after
these cease to be honored, rises at its
expense. Yet, not only is such a
crisis approaching. but it is being
fastened by Legislative stimulation
| in favor of other industries while
overlooking this.
''ln 1890 only about "a per cent
of the American people lived in the
! towns. At the time of the Civil war
the percentage had risen to l6. In
] 1900 more than 81 per cent of our
population was urban. The change
is portentious; and there is no doubt
that the coming census will show ii
to have proceeded in the last ten
years with accelerated speed. In
spite of the warnings or economists,
the amelioration of farm life, the
opening of new and attractive em-
ployment on the land through the
| spread of irrigation and the growth
of the fruit industry, the encourage
ment of public men and the wider
dissemination of agricultural educa-
| tion, the percentage of our popula
ton who work on the farm constant
ly declines. If that proceeds too far,
it is as If dry-rot had eaten through
the timbers supporting some great
| structure. We should consider now
the change accomplished and that i'm
pending.
with our annual increase of over
% per cent in population from nat
ural causes. and immigration that
has not been less than three-quarters
of a million any year since 1902,
there viii be from 2 to . z million
more mouths to feed every year
/ Having in view this increase in pop
ulation, the declining average yield
/ per acre OF cultivated land in the
! United States after 1t has been
farmed for a few years, the rise OF
per capita consumption with a high
/ er cost of living and the movement
/ of the working population away from
the land. the time is now approach .
ing when we shall not only cease to
be a wheat-selling nation. but will
| find ii necessary to import a por-
tion OF what we consume.
Our foreign trade in the past has
rested mainly on our exports of pro-
duets drawn from the earth directly,
or only once removed Our manufac-
Z lures for export are to large extent
natural products subjected to a few
simple processes. Flow are we to
meet the immense trade balance
agaginst us. how prevent financial
storms of frequent occurrence and
destructive force; how feed the COM
ing millions. If the farmer who pays
] most of the bills, has retired to the
city or the country town in order
! that his children may the better en-