Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1909-09-17
RAILROAD MAGNATE DECLARES
AMERICA MUST PRODUCE MORE
FOOD SUPPLIES.
SPEAKS BEFORE THE BANKERS.
To Avert National Disaster, People
Must Leave Cities for Agn-
cultural Life.
"wE DO NOT FEED THE WORLD

CHICAGO, ILL.,, Sept. 14.-''The idea
| that we feed the world is being correct
ed; and unless we can increase the agri-
cultural population and their product,
| the question of a source of food supply
at home will soon supersede the question
! of a market for our own products
| abroad" This was the warning given by
James ]. Hill at the convention of the
| during discussion of the decline of ag-
, riculture and its consequences. Mr..
| Hill's subject was National Wealti'
and the Farm He said:
I'VE have almost reached a point
| where, owing to increased population
| without increased 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 percentage
! of the population engaged in agriculture
! and the wheat product per acre are both
! falling; at the same time the cost of liv-
ing is raised everywhere by this relative
! scarcity of bread, by artificial increase in
the price of all manufactured articles,
and by habit of extravaganza 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 intimately related to the wealth of
| the nation and most concerned that 1t
shall not suffer loss or decreases. Never
yet has enhanced cost of living, when
due to agricultural decline and inability
to supply national needs, failed to end
/ in national disaster.
1.-THE farm is our main reliance, and
every other activity depends on that.
The majority of people fail to realize
1l1y +bo Ioolipipn or inc of ouTi-
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 a relative advance of this indus
try as compared with others. Exactly
the opposite is the case. l 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 SUM.
This is something whose consequences
for evil are as certain as if the aggre
| gate deposits in all the banks of this
country were decreasing by fixed per-
centage every ten years, while their loans
| were increasing by another percentage
just as stable. You would know what ca
tastrophe that assured by and by.
Legislatures Must Act
at means the same thing, in kind and
ulation, the producers and depositors in
the great national treasury of wealth, is
declining year by year, while the city
| population, which thrives only by draw
ing 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 ia
vor of other industries while overlooking
this.
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 16. 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. In spite of the
warnings of economists, the ameioratlon
of farm life the opening Of new and at
tractive employment on the land through
the spread of irrigation and the growth
of the fruit industry, the encouragement
of public men and the wider dissemina-
ton of agricultural education. the per-
centage of our population who work on
the farm constantly declines. Ii 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
impending.
More Mouths to Feed.
with our annual increase of over is
per cent in population from natural
causes, and immigration that has not been
less than three-quarters of a million any
year since 1902, there will be from two
to two and a half million more mouths
to feed every year. Having in view this
increase in population, the declining av-
erage yield per acre of cultivated land IN
the United States after it has been
farmed for a few years. the rise of per
capita consumption with a higher cost
of living and the movement of the work
ing population away from the land, the
time is now approaching when we shall
not only cease to be a wheat selling ma
ton, but will find it necessary to import
a portion of what we consume.
Our foreign trade in the past has
rested mainly on our exports OF products
drawn from the earth directly, or only
once removed. Our manufactures for ex-
port are to a large extent natural prod
ucts subjected to a few simple processes.
How are we to meet the immense trade
balance against us, how prevent financial
storms of frequent occurrence and de-
structive force how feed the coming mil
lions, if the farmer, who pays most OF
the bills. has retired to the city or the
country town in order that his children
NAV the better enjoy their automobiles
and enter into the delights OF the social
game?
T "a stationary or declining product,
soil becoming annually less productive,
revolt against the life Of the farm and
consequent rise in wages amounting since
hS95 to $50 per cent with board, compel
such a rise of all prices as bears ruin