The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-13
Railroad President Declares That Methods of Farming
 Must be bettered
WAGES MUST GO UP 10
 MEET COST OF LIVING
William c. Browne Shows That Neces- saries of Life Have Constantly
 Increased For Years as We'll as Wages.

Boston. January 12.-"We must increase production per acre by more intelligent methods or we must face the relentless, certain day when we shall not produce food enough to supply our own neces- sites" said President William c. Brown of the New York Central railroad. in an address tonight before the New Eng land Railroad club.
 In addition to President Brown, Gov. Eben s. Draper was also guest and principal speaker.
 President w C. Browns speech. com ing as 1t does at the height of & new fioodtide of national prosperity, was in tended for a warning of the most serious import. It gains added force by its re- iterations of the recent admonitions of James J. Hill 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 Mir Brown says:
 Wages must go up in about the same proportion that the purchasing power of the money the laborer earns goes down"
 Mir Brown said in part
 The most portentous cloud discernfbIe upon the political or economic horizon at this time is the steady, relentless in- crease In prices of everything that goes to make up the cost of living.
 With a score of bountiful harvests. the price of grain has steadily advanced until the prices of 190s-0sa show increases over those Of 1898 as follows:
 Corn an increase of III ropts oats. an increase of %.i pen cent, wheat, an increase of 59.5 per cent; spotstoes. an increase of 70.5 per cent, hay, an incres % of 49.7 per cent.
 Values Increased.
 With a normal increase and no disease to deplete our herds. meat values have increased marvelously. Notwithstanding the advent of the automobile, horses and mules show an increase in value of more than 160 per cent.
 'The products of the forest make an equally marvellous showing Anthracite and bitumious coal have advanced 29 to n per cent, respectively; lard 11s per cent. pork S2 per cent and tallow 55 per cent During this time farm lands in all parts of the west and middle west has fully doubled in value. This unusual phenomenon of steadily rising values in the face of long succession of boun- tiful crops is one of the most important as well as interesting problems that con front the political economist today. Econ omists agree that there is a direct re- lation between the quantity of gold that Is the basis of value and the general industrial condition. The gold production of the world for the year 1896 was ap- proxfmately s202, ,251. GOO For 1909 it was approximately s445, 100000, an increase of 120 per cent
 The significance of these facts in tn cir effect upon present and future values may be better comprehend when We recall the fact that gold is indestructible. In some form the gold that Columbus carried in the caravels is in existence somewh ere today. The crop grown in 1908 has been almost consumed. The coal mined last year has been burned but the gold pro- duced year after year piles up and as it accumulates it takes more gold to buy bushel of wheat. suit of clothes. pound of steak, sack of -four or any necessity of life.
 Pay of Labor Higher.
 For this reason the pay of labor has steadily advanced and must con tinue to advance in some fair ratio with the increase In the cost of things that labor must buy. To put it another wat,
 
 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 signin- canoe compared with which all others become negligible factors; and this is the alarming rapidity with which con sumption of the products of the na- tions farms is overriding production.
 Statistics show that the failure to increase the product of our farms Is like the ratio of increase in consumption, is exerting more than three times the effect upon cost of living than the increase of gold 10 having.
 If the converging lines of production and consumption in the United States continue to approach each other as they have for the last 10 years, before the have just entered has been reached. the last vessel loaded with the agN- cultural products of this country will have left our shores, the exporting grain elevators in our seaboard cines will stand empty and this great na- tion, like those of the old world. will be looking for place to buy the nec- essa ries of life.
 There is no alternative. We must increase production per acre by more methods we must face the relentless. inevitable day when we cannot produce food enough to supply our own necessities.