Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-10-08
EUROPEAN WAR AFFORDS q. s.
MANY splendid, OPPORTUNITIES

4 49,
Fate has eliminated Americas CON,
merclal competitors. The world i
ours.
L predict that for the next tw,
years we will see a business boom i,
the United States, the equal of whicf
we nave never before seen. Everyone
VIII make money who works. and al
may partake of the prosperity.
In the past two weeks l have spok-
en- at ehautauquas in five different
states in the Mississippi Valley. Or
these occasions l have met a grear
many farmers, stock raisers and cour
try merchants. l have also recently
visited the cities of Chicago, st. Louis
New York, Denver, st. Paul and Min
neepois, meeting in each place bank.
ers, merchants and manufacturers.
My prediction of the business boom
however, is founded on sometime
more than the general feeling which
l saw manifest.
My prophecy is founded on the fol
lowing facts: Sixty per cent. of the
people of the United States live in
the country and in the towns of 5000
Inhabitants and under.
The trade in these towns and vii
lagos is dependent upon the prosper
ity of the farmers.
1t is also a we'll admitted fact that
when the farmer is depressed anG
ceases to buy implements and to build
/ that trade in the large cities suffers.
At the present time farmers every
where are hopeful, and even iubilan,.
I talked to 5000 farmers at Ames.
In the audience we had students,
teachers, professors and a good many
prosperous farmers.
The sentiment of the audience was
that farmers were to get a bigger and
better price for their products for the
next near than they have in the past.
Wheat will be a dollar, or a dollar
ten, before Christmas; corn Will be so
10 50 cents; oats viii be 90 cents.
Farmers Will be getting 10 cents for
hogs at the railroad stations; cattle in
proportion.
Wages of all kinds are going to be
higher. Farmers in Iowa and Illinois
have been paying SIS and 81 a day to
harvest hands. At Ames I met a man
who had just hired 100 students, husky
country boys from IS to %, at 81 a
day and board to work on threshins
machines and dig bitches for tile.
High wages means 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 they
are going to buy agricultural imple-
ments on a scale that they have never
done before.
The 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
ducing centers. Russia's wheat crop
above.
Europe is absolutely compelled to
look this way for food.
Argentina Nhas good crops, which
means that her farmers will be in
the market for vast quantity of goods
which heretofore have been purchas-
cd largely in Germany, Austria and
France.
And South America will look this
way for agricultural implements, MA
chinery and commodities in a thous=
and forms.
The trade from South America will
be shifted largely from Europe to the
United States. TIE prosperity OF
South America will also be doubly
ours, for not only will we share in the
prosperity of South America, but we
will thrive through the fact that prac-
tically all Europe has quit productive
work in order to destroy.
We are now harvesting our cotton
crop, which is worth approximately
$3.50, 600, 900.
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 path
way across the sea is kept clear n
this will mean that a goodly quantity
of our cotton will be absorbed in Eng
land.
Great Britain is the best foreign
of the United States. Great
buys from us every year
goods to the extent of $5OO,OOO,OOO
We buy back from Great brlCdlh
goods to the extent of $500, 100000.
This means a balance in our favor OF
about 5000, 600, 0OO.
England does not produce enough
to take care of her people, M
for the next year she will make big
demands on us for food products
But we will purchase from the Cont
mental countries less than we ever
have in the past simply because these
will have little to sell.
Everything they produce will De
consumed or destroyed, and this Will
mean for us a bigger trade balance IN
,ur favor than we have ever known:
The wheat crop of the Unlteo
in 1914 is over 9OO.0OO'OOO Du-
shells, and this will be sold at an aver
age of 81 a bushel.