The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-05

He said the new industrialism'' has
been mistaken by some as predatory
wealth." by others as revolutionary
plutocracy." and still by others as II
cause for new nationalism.'
Mr.. Yoakum said in part:
Farmers do not get the use of their
share of the money earned in the
United States. There are now about
80. eco 600 people in the United States,
and about 2S000,000 are farmers and
their families. The products of the
farms are responsible for more than
one-third the wealth and commerce of
the country. No one can say that one
third of this is used by you in the bet
terment of the country districts. Com
pare country roads, full of mud holes.
with improved town streets. Look at
the country wooden bridges and at
town Viaduct and steel bridges. The
cities have gone in debt for streets to
the extent of millions and hundreds of
millions. The farmers have not used
their share of the money and credit for
doing the things that help them. They
have borrowed but little money tn
make their roads compared with what
the town people have borrowed to
make their streets comfortable and
cheap to haul goods over.
BY comparison, there is too much
money going for the luxuries of the
city, and for making life easy there,
and not enough for country improve
ments, such as modern barns, diaries
and poultry houses. Not enough is in
vested in up-to-date farm implements.
Our cities are growing faster because
money is being poured into them to
make them grow. Our farming indus
try is not developing as it should be
cause there is not enough money eX-
pended for the farm life to enable it
to keep pace with the town life. The
census just taken and now being tabu-
lated. win show a great many unsatis-
factory things in relation to country
life-not only as to decreases of popu-
lation in many of the country districts
and a falling off of productiveness of
agricultural life$ but a general let
down in agriculture and abandonment
of farms in the older states.
Country and Town Contrasted.
After the products of the farm reach
the cities, they are hauled in some in
stances for distance of two or three
miles on drays and freight trucks.
Think what the town folks would say
if they had to pay an extra expense to
have their food and other supplies de-
livered on account of mud holes and
deep creeks making their streets at
times impossible, as is the case with
the farmers to get their products to
market.
We are approaching the year 1911
with prospects not good for building
more than 1000 miles of new railroad
which is 1000 miles less than our
normal for thirty years. The country
lying west of the Mississippi is at
tractive to transportation people, and
it will require 1000 miles of addi-
tional railroad to give the vast area
of rich country lying between the Mis-
sissippi River and the Pacific Ocean
equal railroad facilities with the coun-
try lying east of the river.
To build, ballast, equip and provide
terminals and all things that go to
make a fIrSt-claSS railroad
done in the Southwest for less than
$4,000 to $4,000 a mile and in the
Northwest for less than $4,000 to
$4,000 a mile. There should now be
building in the country west of the
Mississippi 1000 or 5000 miles of rail-
road annually; but, if we build only
5000 miles annually. it will require the
expenditure of over $200,0O0,000 a
year, to be distributed among those
who sell materials and those who sell
their labor
In the last thirty years 10000
miles have been added to the railroad
mileage of the United States. The
banner year of construction was under
Mr. Cleveland's first administration,
when there were $4,000 miles con-
structed in one year. Eighty-five per
cent of the total mileage of railroads
built in the last ten years was built
in the territory west of the Missis-
sippi and south of the Ohio rivers; and
it is safe to say that from this time
on for many years, if We can again
get railroad construction under way,
IS per cent of the new mileage will
be west of the Mississippi river
Panic of 1907.
When the 1907 panic overlook the
country there were under construction
5000 miles of new railroad which had
been contracted for and could not be
postponed. This new construction was
made up partly of 1,400 miles in the
southwest. with which 1 was associ-
ated, the Pacific coast extension of the
Chicago. Milwaukee & st. Paul and
the Western Pacific from Salt Lake
to San Francisco. Most of this work
was completed during 1903. The money