The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-06

per quart. Rye was f1xexd at As cent!
per bushel; barley at As cents pc
oushel; wheat at IS cents per bushe
and you will notice how striking it is
today that the prices of rye, barley
and wheat have not materially ad-
vanced.
h wage list fixed for the year 3O1
A. D.. is particularly interesting in
comparison today. A baker was to get
Il cent per day and his keep, a brick
layer Fl cents and his keep, a car
renter p cents and his keep, a paint
er Il cents and his keep, a stonema-
son Il cents and his keep, a blacksmith
and wagonmaker 81 cents and his
Keep, while a farm laborer was al
lowed II cents per day and his keep.
compare that with the wage list
today, which has increased ten fold,
while IUodstufTs have remained almost
me same, and you will see that the
basis tor the high cost OF living com
Paint today is not that life cannot be
sustained con :lcGlIy, tut that Ifs
demands so much today which the
year 301 had never heard of.
When one looks back 1900 wears at
such a comparison Of wages and of
food prices; when one finds a great
a"grlcuIutral country like the United
states thriving and growing each year
more prosperous, more firmly fixed as
a financial world power, one is tempted
10 look. for the reason, if there be a
reason, now and why the American
grain grower has been enabled to
prosper, receiving for his product al
0 the same price level as 1900
years ago and buying the product of
otner labor receiving ten times the
wages Of that period. Perhaps there
IS no reason. but that a multitude of
causes work towards one great result.
B u there are some conclusions OF
my own that l want to present to
0 for our thought and your own
conclusions.
TIN food supply of Rome came from
the rich land Of Egypt, r~eplenished in
1ertiIlty each year by the overflow OF
The Nile. The arrival of the
grain fleet was a great public event,
n its safe passage across the Medi-
t~erranean, short though their voyage
seems today, was hailed as a public
blessing.
mo country can exhaust it's re-
sources without thought or care and
prosper long.
Low Point in 1896.
I'm 1896 the low point of the crop
value per acre in this country was
reached at 1874. Since then there has
oeen a steady improvement until In
1913 the high point was reached at
$ol.Sl, more than double the crop value
per acre achieved in seventeen years.
The agricultural department tells
us that in 1887 the cereal crops of the
United States amounted to about three |
billion bushels and their value to
$I'25O,OO 600. The average cereal crop
Of the United States now amounts to
nVH billion hIIShnlc anl I+r ,a1,,. d.
about $4,000, 600, 900.
The crop production Of this country
In twenty-six years has almost doub-
led n it's value is two and n half
times as much.
Have you, who live here in our mid
die west and northwest, ever stopped
TO think why it was that a. cereal
country growing grain and grain
which must sell in the same consum-
ing markets abroad as the grain grown
by pauper labor of Russia, India, and
Argentine, has been able to grow and
prosper? Why it is that farm values
have shown such a substantial in
crease, and been justified therefore,
when the surplus of their crop must
market in competition with these other
cheap labor countries? Isn't it worth
a little thought to see why this should
be, when they pay a scale Of labor
Tar above that of these other coun-
tr1es? When what they buy in manu-
tactured implements must be bought
as a product of Well-paid and skilled
iaoor, and their grain when delivered
In the same markets abroad has no
greater value than the grain of these
less fortunate competitors Of ours?
"Ihls is the conclusion to which I
have come.
II believe the prosperity Of our West
and Northwest, almost 1000 miles
from the s~eaboard, is due to two
Things; one, the great deep water
highway OF the Great Lakes with it's
cheap transportation costs, reaching
Into the very heart Of this continent,
n the other to the gradual perfect
ed system OF grain marketing, a system
which exists in no other country in
the world.
No Favoritism in Trade.
There is no favoritism shown in
trade. Trade laws follow natural chan
nels and only the strongest survive
1t is my honest judgment today that
II the great cheap transportation Of
the Great Lakes did not exist the
West, Middle West and Northwest
would not be great consuming markets
for the manufacturing of the east
farm values would be lower by far
thoA IhSyfdIS loudy, ana the main |
streets of III agricultural towns would
not see many automobiles drawn uE
along the curb.
II believe this system Of water
transportation On the Great Lakes. of
which Duluth is the far western end.
lis the biggest asset of the whole Unit
ed States, the very biggest.
Il will show you what I mean. The
Continued or Paga -Four.