Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-01-13
Sounded by Pres. Brown Of New York Central.
Must Produce More per Acre or Face Food
Shortage Before Many Years--WageS Must
Also Keep Pace With Cost Of Living.

Boston, Jan. 1--WE must increase
production per acre by more intelligent
methods or we must face the relentless
| day when we shall not produce food
enough to supply our own necessities"
| said President William j. Brown of the
| New York Central Railroad in an ad-
dress tonight before the New England
| Railroad Club. The wages of labor. he
declared. must continue to advance in
fair ratio with the steady increase in
the cost of living.
Many representatives of New Eng
| land fallroad interests We're gathered
about the banquet tables at the Hotel
Somerset. In addition to Mr.. Brown
Gov. Draper was also a principal guest
and speaker.
President Browns speech coming as
it does at the height of a new flood
tide of national prosperity, was in
| tended as a warning of the most seri
Gus import. 1t gains added force bv
its reiteration of the recent admoni
lions of James ]. Hill, another great
| railroad man as well as those of visit
| ing students of our internal affairs,
and it is especially timely in view of
the fact that the employees of all the
railroads east of the Mississippi are
formulating demands for an increase
in wages, based on the increased cost
of living.
| In this connection Mr.. Brown says:
| wages must go up in about the
| same proportion that the purchasing
power of the money the laborer earns
goes down"
| Mr.. Brown said in part:
THE most portentious cloud discern
able upon the political or economic ho-
rizon at this time is the steady, re-
lentless increase in price of every
thing that goes to make up the cost of
| living.
with succession of bountiful har-
vests the price of grain has steadily
advanced until the prices of 19OS-9 show
| increases over those of 1898 as follows:
Corn, an increase of 1112 per cent:
| oats, an increase of S5.1 per cent;
wheat, an increase of 595 per cent;
potatoes, an increase of 7O.5 per cent;
hay. an increase of 497 per cent.
with d normal increase and no dis
| ease to deplete our herds, values have
increased marvelously. Notwthstand-
| ing the advent of the automobile,
| horses and mules show an increase of
| value of more than 100 per cent. The
products of the forest make an equal
| ly marvellous showing. Anthracite and
bituminous coal have advanced go and
~ per cent, respectively, lard 113 per
cert, pork, 81 per cent. and tallow SIS
per cent. During this time farm land
| in all parts of the West and Middle
West has fully doubled in value.
"Tlis unusual phenomenon of stead
| lily rising values in the face of a long
succession of bountiful crops is one of
| the most important, as well as inter
esting problems that confronts the po-
| litical economist today. Economists
agree that there is direct relation be-
tween the quantity of gold that is the
basis of value and the general indus
trial condition. The gold production of
the world for the year 1896 was approx
imately 1902 PSI, 900. For 1909 it was APP
proximatcly $445, 200, 900, an increase of
120 per cent. The significance of these
facts III their effect upon present and
future values may be better compre
hended when we recall the fact that
gold is indestructible. In some form
the gold that Columbus carried in the
caravels is in existence somewhere to-
day. The crop grown in 1908 has been
almost consumed. The coal mined last
year has been burned, but the gold
produced year after year piles up and
as it accumulates it takes more gold
to buy a bushel of wheat, suit OF
clothes, a pound of beef or any of the
other necessities of life.
'For this reason the pay of labor has
steadily advanced and must continue
to advance in some fair ratio with the
increase in the cost of things that labor
must buy. To put it another way,
wages must go up in about the same
| proportion that the purchasing power
of the money the laborer earns goes
down.
Another force is working for higher
cost of living, more insistently, more
| powerfully and with sinister signifi-
canoe compared with which all other
| becomes negIible factors; and this is
the alarming rapidity with which con-
sum otion of the products of the ma
TONS farms is overtaking production.
statistics show that the failure to
| increase the product of our own farms
in anything like the ratio of increase
in consumption, is exerting more than
three times the effect upon cost of liv-
| ing that the increase of gold is having.
II doubt if any country in the world
exceIs the United States in natural fer
Utility of soil or has a more favorable
general climate, but with our careless,
uninfermed methods of seed selection,
fertilization and cultivation, our farms