Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1909-09-16
]. ]. HILL SOUNDS
note Of WARNING
In Speech Before Bankers Assocla-
ton at Chicago.
----------
A QUESTION OF FOOD SUPPLY
Within Ten Years We viii Become
Wheat Importing Natlon-All
Depends Upon the
Farm.
A QUESTION OF FOOD SUPPLY

Cn1CdBO, D0pLs WANING sASs SNN
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-ffth annual convention OF the
organization by James ]. Hill.
1.-THE Idea that we feed the world 10
being corrected" said Mr.. Hill, "and
unless we can increase the agricultural
population and their product the
question Of source Of food supply at
home will soon supersede the question
Of market abroad"
1--WE have" said. the speaker, al
most reached point where, owing to
increased population without increased
production per acre, our home 1000
supplies will be insufficient for our
own needs; within ten years possibly
less, we are likely to become wheat,
importing nation; the percentage 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 everywhere by
this relative scarcity of bread, by arti'
ficial increase in the price of all manu-
featured 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 the men who are most in
timately related to the wealth OF the
nation and most concerned that 1t
shall not suffer loss or decreases"
Mr.. Hill declared that never yet has
enhanced cost Of living, when dne
to agricultural decline and inability
to supply national needs, failed to eN
in national disaster
Mr. Hill said the farm is our main
reliance and that every other activity
depends on that. He asserted how
ever, that the majority Of people fall to
realize practically the declining status
of agriculture In the country. "They
are misled by the statistics Of farm
values and products, mounting annual
" by great leaps, into thinking that
this absolute increase implies rela'
tive advance Of this industry as COM
pared with others" said he. Exactly
the opposite is the case. | refer not
merely to the quality and results OF
our 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 II the aggregate deposits IN
an the banks Of this country were
decreasing by fixed percentage
every ten years, while their loans
we're increased by another percentage
lust as stable. You would know what
catastrophe that assured by and by.
1T means the same thing, in kind
and consequences, when the agricul..
tural population, the producers and
deposltors in the great national treas.
ury of wealth, is declining year
by year, while the city population,
which thrlves only by drawing drafts
upon the land and cannot live year
after these cease to be honored, rises
at its expense. Yet not only is such
crisis approaching, but 1t is being
fastened by legislative stimulation In
favor Of other industries while over
looking this.
All through the address, Mr.. Hill
sought to impress on the delegates
that future prosperity is to come in the
development Of agriculture rather than
in an extension of foreign markets for
manufactured goods.