Arizona republican., 1911-09-26

sus year, 100 million bushels less
than the average ten years before.
Our exports of meats and dairy pro-
ducts have shrunk in ten years over
10 per cent. We sent abroad last
year only about one-t third the num-
Der of cattle we sent ten years ago.
There is not the slightest indica-
ton that this decline will be check
ed. If checked at all, it will be but
temporarily, due to an Industrial
crisis. Were it not for the over 500
million dollars worth of cotton that
we send abroad each year, the country
would be drained of its precious
metals to settle our foreign obli-
cations, and we would be on the
verge of a national bankruptcy. Lands
in England that have been farmed
for more than a thousand years pro-
duce more than twice as much wheat
per acre on the average as we do in
the naturally better lands of the
Mississippi valley. This demonstrates
the difference between farming and
merely mining the soil fertility.
This condition has been greatly
FASTENED by our statesmen. The gift
of an empire of land to railroads To
enable them to furnish speedy and
cheap transportation for a vast ccnti-
nent, together with the homestead
law, so excessively stimulated agri-
cultural production that the farmer
was often, and in fact generally. until
about twelve years ago. forced to
sell his products at and often under
the cost of production. This gave
the world cheaper food than il will
ever see again, and made possible
the wonderful growth of great cities
the world over
The anxiety of the farmer to find
home market instead of having his
prices fixed in a foreign market un-
der competition, led to the continu-
ance OF the system of high tariffs
long after the reason for il had ceased
TO exist. thus wonderfully stimulat-
ing the growth of the cities of our
own land. cities which with all our
boosted ability we have never been
able to govern decently When this
undue stimulus is removed. as il will
and must be sooner or later. our
manufacturers will have to take the
same medicine which sickened the
farmers in the EOS. sos and early
COS.
'Inasmuch as there are no more
Mississippi valleys to be opened up
we are now near the turning point
of the lane. We must from hence
forth learn how to farm. We cannot
greatly increase our acreage: will in
fact be compelled by the return of
normal climatic conditions over our
western territory To reduce it. The
only thing left to do is to grow more
grain per acre, better stock in great
er numbers per quarter section Only
in this way can we reduce the cost
of living.
Our great problem, as I said to
this congress a year ago. is how to
produce food for our own people at
prices which they can afford To pay.
But how? Partly by putting more
brains into our farming Many farm
ers have more faith in moon signs
than in agricultural colleges and ex-
pertinent stations; more faith in ordi-
nary politicians than in college pro
fessors and scientists; more faith in
yellow journals than in the best agri- |
cultural papers.
The farmer complains that he can
not employ the labor necessary to
grow full crops on his land. There |
is just ground for his complaint |
The factory the store, the railroad, |
the trolley line outbid him for the |
labor, even hiatt which is farm born
and farm bred Therefore the very
root and kernel Of our modern farm |
problem is how to maintain on the farm |
all the boys and girls born there. who |
are fit to be farmers or farmers |
wives. This can be done only by |
making farm life worth living.
"All over the country there is the
beginning of great social and in
dustrial awakening The farmer is
beginning to magnify his office to
cut loose from partisan bias, to do
his own thinking and act for him
self. He is paying better salaries
to his school teachers and insisting
that the teaching have some relation
to the life on the farm. He is buy
ing his own automobiles. and paying
cash for them. He is beginning to
realize that farm life is essentially
different from the life of the town.
The movement to organize country
life clubs is spreading. The boys and
girls are organizing for games The
church is beginning to real
re its mission and in several states
country preachers are taking short
courses in agricultural colleges in or
Ter that they may teach morals and
religion to farmers in terms of their
Tally life.
In conclusion permit me to say
that the ultimate prosperity of the
,ity, its ability to govern itself wise
" and well, depends on the develop