Putnam patriot., 1911-03-24
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Why Food produc are High.

WHY fDUu htN hhkhs In his recent speech In Congress Re : prentative Hill made il very evident why food stufis were so high priced and that the Canadian Reciprocity agree ment will have little effect in lowering prices. We give the main part of the speech which should be attentatively read.
 "During the last two years about b0, ,0o immigrants nave come into my own State of Connecticut and made permanent residence there. They have have also gone into the manufacturing and mining States. They have become food consumers instead of food pfoda- cers, as they were al home. They have reduced the supply in the countries from which they came; and If you doubt il, write to any missionary soel- ety in the United States and ask for their reports from the foreign mission aries, as l did in the last campaign. l have these reports, and l would be glad to read them toyou if had time, as to the conditions in every other country in the world, caused by the withdrawal of their agricultural labo- rers over there and the sending of them here, where they do not go into agriculture but into the manufacturing and mining States. Ton gentlemen on the other side of the House suid it was "A Republican tariff that produced the result It was not. IL wns world wide movement, and you will find 1t out when you come to make your tariff Do not make any mistake about that. 1 say frankly, that l think no tariff, either such as you make or such as We make, changes this great question.
 Then he presents another phase of the question, to fortify his statement:
 "Let me give you q striking fact about the section or country in which live as proof that like conditions are existing there. The census reports for New England for the period of twenty years, from 1880 to 1890, show the most remarkable industrial revolution that, in my judgment, that was ever made in the history ol the world since Adam and Exc were driven from the garden of Eden. In that period of time-oniN twenty years-la,&44 farms in New En. gland went out of existence Fifteen thousand three hundred and forty four farms were cut into building lots and sold for residences 10 wealthy people from New York and Boston, made into paiyate parks or allowed to grow up to timber. That means just so much less food production in New England. In that same twenty years there was an increase of a million and a half, and yet there were l7,o00 less farmers at the end of that period than there were in the beginning. Five million of acres of land that were cultivated in lsS0 went out of tillage and culliva- tion.
 
 that was only half of il. That would only have reduced the supply. How about the increased demand? During that same time 25,Oo0 new factories were built in New England. We put billion of dollars into manufacturing. We took the boys and girls of the farms and brought them to the manu- featuring towns and cities, and those boys and girls who, prior to that time were hoeing corn and milking COWS, changed their occupations and became consumers instead Of food producers, as before. At the end of that period New England was paying s4aoeo 900 in wages, against seoo, ,oco,oe twenty years before.
 l have received the statistics of four !