The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1910-02-25
WHY Prices Are Hiuh.

NOrfOlk, NeD,, FeD. lS.-EultOT
News: Why land and food are dear9
Why should anyone ask so simple a
question, and why should congress
(but that is joke discuss such a
question? The question is local
one, for there are places where land
Is not dear and where meat cannot
be sold at any prices, and where grain
and fruit and vegetables rot where
they grow because no one will use or
buy them.
For every man, woman and child
of all the semi-starving millions of
Europe a farm can be bought for a few
cents per acre in a healthier and
more fertile land than Europe-in
Africa. The plains of Tartary, Mongo.
liza and Siberia, With z soil and eli
mate similar to Kansas, Nebraska and
the Dakotas. would make a wheat and
alfalfa field as large as the United
States and the settled portion of Can.
ada, but not a single furrow has been
turned there, while on the very bord-
ers OF this vast food garden live
the starving millions of India ana
China. Australia could support pop
ulation of 0O,00O,0O0 but nine-tenths
of its soil is still virgin. Southern
South America has about the same
climate and soil as the United States
and would gladly give to every land
lesa person in the United States a
farm free.
1t was but few years ago, after
the country had been used for 800
years for cattle pasture, that we dis
covered that the Gulf coast of Texas
would grow more food products dur
ing larger number of months of the
year than any other section of our
country, and about the same time
we learned that the Canadian north
west would grow wheat. The central
valley of the continent is our granary
and with a grade of l per cent from
the Arctic circle to the gulf there is
still no north and south railroad, and
it took nearly three centuries to dis
cover that crops could be raised on
the praries. The vast tonnage from
this region is still going by the long
expensive route to the sea board.
We ship our raw wool and cotton
to Europe and then tax ourselves
by tariff to get our clothing back
so that we can ship more beef across
the ocean to pay the bill.
A farmer in north Nebraska raises
feeders and ships them to Omaha
A neighbor of his goes down on the
same train and brings those cattle
back and finishes them for market
and again ships them to Omaha where
they are butchered and the meat
shipped back for local consumption
This same transaction is going on al
over the country.
We are annually cutting thousands
of acres of young and immature for
ests to make paper, and in turn we
throw into the alleys millions of tons
of that same paper.
In Nebraska we buy hundreds OF
thousands of cans of tomatoes, peas
beans and other canned vegetables
grown with fertilizers among the
rocks of New York and Pennsylvania
Some day we WILL probably, send
our eggs to Pittsburg to have them
polished and put up in fancy box
and sent back for our consumption
We have 100 items for our nationa
bill of fare and we persistently live
on meat, potatoes, bread, butter and
coffee.
The native of Chicago says, "Chica
go is good enough for me-" The Ne
braskan says the same OF his state
and the more gregarious humanity
is and the harder it is to live the bet
ter it seems to suit him. The penalty
of nature in all ages for this condi
tion of society has been famines and
pestilence, butt he lesson has never
| been needed.
If the correspondent of The News
from Plainview happens to read the
above it may help him to illuminate
his problem of high prices.
j. II. Mackay.