The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1910-02-08
REMEDY FOR HIGH
COST OF LIVING
Go Back to The Farm, Advises
James ]. Hill.
need OF MORE FOODSTUFFS.

Movement From City to Country Will
Start Before Long and Effect VIII
Be Felt, Says Railroad BuiIder-Be-
Ieves Problem Would Soon Be
Solved if We Could Stop Our Rush.
Back to the soil!''
That is the slogan of James J. Hill,
sage, philosopher and master railroad
builder, one which he would have en-
ployed as the rallying cry for all per-
sons interested in the solution of the
problem Of the high cost of living.
"The problem is not local; neither is
it national" said Mr.. Hill in a recent
interview, adding: ''It is international.
All Christendom is wrestling with it.
Obviously the world has reached an
economic crisis. We are not producing
foodstuffs enough. We must enlarge
the farming area of the earth; we
must apply scientific principles to
farming; we must adapt ourselves to
conditions as best we can while we are
going through the slow, tedious proc
ess of making the soil yield more
abundantly."
1.-THE Malthusian theory Of the rapid
increase of population for subsistence
on normal productiveness would seem
to have some bearing on the present
worldwide situation was suggested
to Mr. Hill.
Plenty of Land Can Be Obtained.
HNQncnOcaP, ha oyc1aif1oo1 nr1si-
culturally speaking, the earth is not
overpopulated anywhere. There is
congestion in the cities. The problem
is to relieve this congestion and scat
ter the unproductive population to the
farms. Then when we get them there
we must teach them how to farm bet
ter than nine-tenths of our farmers
now know"
+ But the people are intensely con
cerned over how to bring quick relief
to the existing situation MIR. Hill. was
reminded. l. IS
|. II am aware. of'tIaat," he said mo
body is more interested than am
frankly confess, however, that / don't
know what can be done to bring early
relief. fear there is mighty little
that legislation can do. The statutes
are already crowded withSlaws in
tended to avert just such a condition
as the country is now suffering from.
But they have done precious little good,
if any. Within the last ten years the
cost of everything weG have to buy has
increased about go per cent. Popula-
tion has not increased in any such
ratio. SO what's thematter? Fer one
thing, we live too high. When some
ladies down at. Washington the other
day asked. me to tell them how to
stop the high cost Of living toldrthem
that If they would tell me how to
stop the cost Of. high living / might
be able to answer their question. The
one is as grave and pertinent as the
other.
Expensive and Wasteful Methods.
docs your wife go herself to the
butcher, the baker and the candlestick
maker and select what she wants after
pricing the articles, or does she send
the cook or the butler? Maybe, she
gives her orders by telephone. Both
are expensive and wasteful. But this
is the telephone age and the automo-
bile age. Each is symbol of the
times. Each denotes that we are liv-
ing high.
eff as a nation we could stop our
rush for few days and give ourselves
over to solid thinking, to casting about
US to see what is going on, the prob
lem would soon solve itself. There is
extravaganza everywhere and in every
thing extravaganza in government, in
industry, IN speech and IN promise.
We are wasting our heritage more
shameless " than any people in the
history Of the world. It has been
come easy and go easy with us for so
long a time that we don't know how
else to live
Let's Turn to the Farm.
''But other nations seem almost as
extravagant as we are, or else the ar
ticles we import from foreign coun-
tries. such MS sugar coffee tea and
rice, would not have, kept pace with
the Increased cost Of our home produce
lions. This shows that the soil else
where Is nor being made to yield sufii-
/ GENTLY In word, our best thinkers
everywhere must turn their thoughts
to the problem of increasing the pro
/ dUctivsness. of the sod before we can
1 arrive at the solutian.A SO let's turn
to and solve the farm problems. 1t is
! simpler than any ofs,tlfe others, but it
is harder to make practical use 4of the
| solution. We know how to make two
/ blades of grass grow where only one
| grew before. but we haven't the men
and women ont on the farms to do the
work. So the chief feature of the
| problem is how to get the people back
!. to the soil They have got to come to
it if we survive. Thesooner the better.
I'm the present posture of affairs |
don't know how any of the neces-
saries of life can be cheapened to the
consumer, | do know that they win
be greatly cheapened and we will be
better off when we add millions to our
agricultural population. The move
ment from the city back to the coun-
try will start before long, and we shall
Immediately feel its effects. Until that
movement sets In have no remedy to
suggest for the present high cost OF
living-I should have said the present
cost OF high living"
r-.A f@L..eL r.. Az Nar,ssa