The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1914-09-25
OPPORTUNITIES OF
THE UNITED STATES
BETTER THAN EVER
(By Elbert Hubbard.)

the history of the United States, COM
merclally, we never had the oppor-
tunlty that we have today.
Fate has eliminated Americas COM
mercial competitors. The world is
ours.
l predict that for the next two
years we will see business boom in
the United States the equal of which
we have never before known. Every
one will make money who works, and
all may partake of the prosperity.
In the past two weeks have spok-
en- at Chautauquas in five different
states in the Mississippi valley. On
these occasions l have met a great
many farmers, stock raisers and
country merchants. I have also re-
Gently visited the cities of Chicago,
st. Louis, New York, Denver, St.
Paul and Minneapolis, meeting in
each place bankers, merchants, and
manufacturers.
My prediction of a business boom.
however, it founded on some thing
more than the general feeling which
l saw manifest
My prophecy is founded on the fol-
lowing facts: Sixty per cent of the
people In the United States live in the
country and IN towns of five thous-
sand inhabitants and under.
The trade in these towns and viii
lagos is dependent upon the prosper-
lty of the farmers.
1t is also we'll admitted fact that
when the farmer is depressed and
ceases to buy implements and to build
that trade in the large cities suffers.
AT the present time farmers everv-
where are hopeful, and even iubilant.
talked to three thousand farmers
at Ames, Iowa, the seat of the state
agricultural school. In the audience
we had students, teachers, professors
and a good many prosperous farmers.
Inc sentiment of the audience was
that farmers were to get bigger and
better price for their products for the
next year than they have in the past.
Wheat will be a dollar, or dollar
ten, before Christmas; corn will be
eighty or eighty-five cents; oats will
be sixty. Farmers will be getting ten
cents for hogs at the railroad sta
tons; cattle in proportion.
Wages of all kinds are going to be
hgher. Farmers in Iowa and Illinois
nave been paying three and four dol
lars a day to harvest hands. At
Ames l met man who had Just hired
hundred students, husky country
boys from eighteen to twenty-five, at
TOUR dollars day and board, to work
on threshing machines and dig bitches
for tile.
High wages mean good business
for dealers in clothing boots, shoes
and all sorts of living commodities.
The fact that we have bumper
crops In every line and that prices
are high means that the farmers are
going to build; also that they are go
ing to buy agricultural implements on
scale that they never have before.
Ihe only depression that exists in
america IS In the big cities. " The
towns, villages and country are hope
full.
The United States, Russia and Ar
genuine are the three great grain pro-
duclng centres. RuSSia's wheat crop
is below the normal, whereas ours is
above.
Europe is absolutely compelled to
look this way for food.
Argentine has good crops, which
means that her farmers will be in the
market for a vast quantity of goods
"hlch heretofore have been purchas-
ed largely in Germany, Austria and
France.
And South America will look this
way for agricultural implements, ma
chinery and commodities in a thou
sand forms.
The trade from South America will
be shifted largely from Europe to the
United States. The prosperity of
South America will also be doublv
ours, for not only will we share in
the prosperity of South America, but
we will thrive through the fact that
practically all Europe has quit pro-
ductive work in order to DESTROY.
We are now harvesting our cotton
crop, which is worth approximately
seven hundred and fifty million dol
lars.
The factories of France, Germany
and Austria are closed. but manufac-
turing in England will continue as
never before. 1t is not at all probable
that England will be invaded. and
Great Britain will see to it that a
pathway across the sea is kept clear.
and this will mean that a goodly
quantity of our cotton will be absorb
ed in England.
Great Britain is the best foreign
customer of the United States. Great
Britain buys from us every re.,
good to the extent of five hundred
million dollars. We buy back from
Great Britain goods to the extent of
two hundred million dollars. This
means balance in our favor of about
three hundred million dollars.
England does not produce enough
food to take care of her people, and
for the next year she will make big
demands on us for food products. But
we will purchase from the continental
countries less than we ever have in
the past, simply because these coun-
tries will have little to sell.
Everything they produce will be