The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1911-09-27
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING
Causes Reviewed By Expert
Who Prophesies What
Will Cure.

Inc high cost of living has come I,
stay In the opinion of George E. Rob
erts, Director of the Mint. The sunni,
OF cheap, free land IS almost exhausted
and the amount of new land brough,
under cultivation does not keep pace
with the growth of population. Our
population increased 2l per cent be.
tween 1900 and 1910, but the area in
farms only increased AZ per cent and
the area In cultivation 15.2 per cent.
The increase in cultivated area began
to fall behind that in population in the
decade from 1890 to 1900 for the first
tims except during the war period.
1860 to 1870. From 1870 to 1880 the
cultivated area increased 80 per cent
and from 1880 to 1890 rs per cent.
Not only is The area of cultivated
land falling behind the increase in pop
uiation, but it is of poorer quality,
much of 1t being semi.arid, and the East
and Middle West show no increase.
The great gains have been in North
Dakota, il2 per cent; Oklahoma, 104
per cent; Texas, 80 per cent.
The occupation of the cheap lands
and the greater proportionate demand
for food have combined to advance the
value and rent of farm land, which are
more likely to remain fixed than TO re-
cede. This fact will drive the farmers
to adopt more efficient methods of pro-
duction that they may increase the out
put Of the farms, but 1t is to be feared
that this increased output will no more
than provide for the increase in popu-
latio1 which has hitherto depended up
on increase in cultivated area. The
gain made by progress in the arts of
manufacture and transportation has
been Offset by the higher cost Of food,
clothing, rent, which force up wages,
and of raw materials. Mr.. Roberts
says;
The real truth is there is less to
divide; we are not getting SO much by
the bounty of nature as few years
ago; in the United States we have
made short turn into relative scarcity
and we have been SO important a fac
tor in world production that all the
world is affected"
The safest remedy seems to be two
fold-to get more out of the land we
have under cultivation and to improve
our methods of distribution. The man
who farms as father did must give
place to the man who has received
scientific training and applies it in get
ting cut of the soil that which it will
best produce and putting back into it
the elements necessary to produce
another crop. Such farming generally
requires smaller farms, for it requires
closer attention to detail than is pos
sible on large farm. In way it re-
quires that personal acquaintance with
each plant which the Chinese farmer is
said to give his crops.
At the same time that the consumer
is complaining of high prices, the farm
er in many sections is complaining of
low prices. He finds that between half
and two-thirds of the price paid by the
consumer goes to the railroad and the
middleman, mostly to the middleman.
The time has come when we can no
longer spend with lavish hand from
the bounty which nature gave us. We
need not be parsimonius, but we must
not be wasteful. By not fully using
our resources we are wasting them,
and by adding unnecessary steps to the
D, ocess of distribution we are wasting