Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-05-13

. in the prosperity Of the agricultural in
dustries OF England and those Of Ger
many and France. where they have
ample protection. James j. Hill. in his
! book %'Ilighways of Progress" says:
"How to meet German competition to-
day is the study Of every intelligent lead
cr Of industry and every cabinet on the
continent of Europe. 1t will be found
that a large share of her worldwide
success is due to symmetrical national
development. Agricultural industry has
not been sighted. Behold Il contrast
that throws light upon the iGic host of
%lIngland's unemployed marching through
the streets whose shop windows are
crowded with wares Of German make.
Between 1876 and 1900 in Great Britain
2, G?l, 42S acres which were under GER
! calls and 75j 255 acres which were UNI
der green crops went out of cultivation,
In Germany during the same period The
cultivated area grew from %. $40. $40 to
%. ?7l. 573 hectares, an increase Of y
per cent
Is there any better illustration of the
! blighting iniluenscc OF free trade In ag-
! ricultural products h Il is furnished by
this statement England, so densely
populated tina if every acre We're made
to produce its utmost enough could not
be produced to feed all the people, her
farmers, with the bes: market Tor food
products in all Europe right at their
doors and enjoying cheap farm labor,
! has under free trade been compelled to
abandon millions of acres of fertile land,
and is abandoning more every year,
while in Germany, under protection,
every acre of cultivated land has not on
~ been retained, but every arabic acre
the cultivated area of the country.
Count bismarck, in the Reichtag in May
1879. made the following statements,
rs not the moment approaching when
our agriculture will no longer be able
to exist, because corn is pressed down
to Il price at which it cannot be re-
munerutively produced in Germany. tax
alton, the cost of living, and the cost
of land being as they are? When that
moment comes, then not my agricul-
ture, but the prussian state and the
German empire will go to ruin as we'll"
And Immediately thereafter he estab-
liShed a system Of tariff duties on Ger
man agricultural products. TO Bismarck
therefore,. who in early life was d rank
free trader, but who, unlike most free.
traders. permitted stubborn practical
brains nor ability.
facts to convince him Of his error. the
w a liz Nv lHt lL'l llIIl lIltk
are among the most prosperous farmers
in the world.
If there is any country IN Europe
where the farmers are more prosperous
the French farmers met with the same
trouble that is sure to Overtake the
farmers in every country sooner or later
and but for the wisdom of t.eir states
ment they would be no better off today
than the farmers in england. Mr.. Meri-
Vptn- AN IO trliSh nlthorifV c1ES'
"The trouble in France. as elsewhere.
centered in the persistent fail in the
prices of agricultural produce, due in
part to the general appreciation of gold,
OF transport and the appearance on the
home market Of trans-oceanic cerials
and meat. The result as the increased
protection Of agricultural products in
1885 and 1887, and the tariff of 1892"
Having thus received ample protection
they became. and | believe are Still
considered, the most prosperous farmers
in Europe, If not in the world.
Again, quoting from Mr.. Hills High
ways OF Progress. He says:
Agriculture in England has suffered in
the last twenty-five years by the opening
of new land in America and the cleapen-
ing of the worlds transportation-'
and he should have added "and because
the government did not protect the far
merS against those conditions"
We need not go to England to find an
illustration of the effect that the OPEN
ing of new lands and the cheapening of
where the farmers are not protected
against those influences. We have but
to go back in our own history some
1orty or lfty years to the time when
our greet western empire Of the richest
agricultural lands in the world. began
to be opened. just at a time when trans
portation was being revolutionized so
as to almost annihilate distance and so
cheaDened that the products of the Far
West could successfully be marketed in
the older and more populous sections
OF the East. In those days New Eng
land farms were selling at from 500
to S20O per acre. but the opening of
the great West with its cheap land ana
the wonderfur yields @; its virgin soil
coupled with cheap transportation. grad
uaIly reduced the value of New England
farms until many Of them were actually
sold for less than the cost Of improve
Of farm products that often prevailed
in the West. the farmers We're unable
to farm as scientifically as they should
nave done. and therefore tried to make
up Tor unsclentific methods by farming
yields. 49," .'
The result has been that with reduced
yields and increased cost of land. labor,
machinery and everything the western
farme has to buy he can no longer
produce food stuffs at as low a cost as
when his land was new and more pro-
dlctive. Because Of his New England
IS again coming into her own. ana her
farms are gradually regaining much Of
their lost value. Farmers in New Eng
land or anywhere else, can by patience
perseverance. industry and intelligence.
overcome and outlive any natural handi-
cap. but there is one menace that al
ways threatens their industry. namely
the 1al!acious political doctrine that it
IS immoral and Unconstitutional for
q government to consider and care for
the welfare of it's own people and it's
own industries as against rest of the
world. We have tried to put this doc
trlne into practice time and time again,
always with disastrous results, but it
seems that each succeeding generation
refuses TO- learn or benefit by the ex-
ana so the democratic party. the ex-
ponent Of this doctrine, is again in
power. The democratic party, like tho
farmers who vote that ticket once in
each generation, apparently refuses to
learn or benefit by the experience Of
pose in this tariff bill to put our farm
ers in direct competition with canada
Argentine and other new and RAPIDLY
developing sections Of the world. Do
not forget that when you force our far
mers to compete with these countries.
t,ey VIII have to compete not only with
their rich virgin soil and cheap railroad
against our great west, but against the
cheap South American labor and ocean
irelghts. which,. when the Panama canal
Is nhlshed, will be a greater handicap
than most men now realize.
Ihey tell us that it has become neces-
SarS 10 put food products on the free
list because Our farmers can no longer
produce enough food to suDDiy the needs