Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1914-08-31
FOOD SUPPLY
OF ENGLAND
Timothy j. O'Connor Points
Out That No Matter How
Long the War May Last
the British Isles Will Not
Suffer
{ BY TIMOTHY J. o'coNNoR)


be an almost criminal disposition in
some quarters to provoke panic over
rising prices of fOodstuffs. At the first
shock of the news of Europe's peril the
corn markets became serious, mainly
because the Baltic and Black sea grain
cargoes have become an increasingly
large factor of late years.
But there is no need gratuitously to
assume that the daily bread of the
Londoners must necessarily rise to a
famine figure. 1t should be borne in
mind that the whole question was ex-
haustively investigated ten years ago
by a royal commission on the supply
of food and raw material in time of
war. 1t was then shown that the stock
of wheat within the United Kingdom
would not fall below a seven weeks
supply at any time of the year, while
in September, the harvest month, it
even reaches seventeen weeks supply.
Moreover, there is usually afloat on it's
way to these shores such a cargo of
wheat as viii average another four to
seven weeks supply, and only the I'M
imaginable contingency of the British
navy meeting with such a reverse in
the first days of the war as to lose
even temporary command of the seas
could hinder the supplies already on
their way from actually reaching us.
So much for the fantastic nonsense
which is finding it's way into print con-
corning the household leaf in danger.
The question also inevitably revives
old proposals for establishing national
granaries-a scheme which did not, by
the way, find much favor with the royal
commission. What was suggested, as
offering less ground for objection from
view, was a scheme for providing stor-
age-room rent free, or otherwise sub
sdizing British farmers to retain their
harvest crops in stock at the disposal
of the government.
1t has been estimated that the aver
age weekly consumption in the United
Kingdom is 100000 quarters of wheat
and that on September 1, with only an
average harvest, there will be an eight
weeks supply in the farmers hands.
There will be, besides, the wheat stocks
held in warehouses at the principal
ports, and the stocks held by millers
and bakers. The latter stocks are
never large and would quickly be ex-
hausted, but the stocks at ports of i'm
port can only be materially reduced
when the navy is no longer able to keep
open the trade routes. And against
any imminent shortage of Russian sup
,,1; Nf ~. y
what is declared to be a record Ameri-
can crop and the great Canadian har-
vest
Then it must not be forgotten that
Ireland is one of the chief sources of
food supply of Great Britain. Take the
item of meat-meat of all kinds, beef,
mutton, bacon, poultry, coming in,
whether alive or dead Ireland sup
plies between one-third and one-half
of the total quantity of meat coming
from all the other countries of the
world put together. Last year the value
of the meat entering Great Britain
| from Ireland was $115,000,0 900. The
next largest supplier of-meat, the Ar
gentine, is $40,000,000 betpw.sthis figure.
Ireland sends more thar 6ne-third of
the eggs and more than one-sixth of the
butter supplied to Great Britain of all
| the other countries combined. Bulking
! the food and drink stuffs of all de-
| scriptions produced in Ireland and con-
sumed by men and animals in Great
Britain, the value is over $500 900
annually; that is, more than Great
Britain receives from any other
| country.
| Then, it is certainly not realized by
most people that Ireland furnishes rs
| per cent of the horses for the British
army, and that these are the best mil
/ itary horses in the world. Buyers from
all the continental armies have been
| coming to Ireland for years; they are
| to be seen at all the fairs and shows:
and they buy the Irish horse not mere
ly as remount but to breed from in
| order to improve their own stock
The agricultural wealth of Ireland
represents progress-progress recent
and stiking. That progress has been
achieved mainly through the intelligent
energies of the Irish people themselves
set free from the industry killing bond
age of bod land system, and guided
and trained through. native institutions
of government, national and local, in
which the opinion Of the people is rep
resented. In other words, the progress
is an accompaniment, if not in some
measure a result, of the partial self
government the Irish people have ir
recent years been enjoying, and the
advance in agricultural wealth is mos
marked over the southern and western
parts of the country.
The progress might be illustrated by
many facts. For example, in 1904 the
value of the export from Ireland tt
Great Britain of meat of all kinds wa.
100000 900. In nine years the Irish far.
mers had SO developed that item Of
production that the value of the ex.
port in 1913 was $115.0O0,0OO - TIL,
value of the annual export to Grea
Britain Of poultry and eggs has beer
: increased in six years by s5,0OO,OOO. 4
gauge of the increase of agriculture
wealth is the amount of deposits ant
cash balances in the Irish banks (joint;
stock and post office savings banks)