Meade County news., 1915-01-14

|
first class freight locomotives and
box cars could not successfully
meet the requirements of sever
bountlful crop years-and yet they
havn't the funds with which to sup
| ply this equipment and thus be pre-
pared for the emergency when it
comes-as it undoubtedly will.
Farmers Will Profit
In this connection, it is opportune
to say that the American farmer is
certain to reap larger profit from
the chaotic conditions which exist
in Europe than any other class of
trades-men or citizen. So far as
our manufacturers are concerned,
while new markets are undoubtedly
beckoning to the United States, yet
on the other hand, for several years
to come, the splendid trade which
we enjoyed IN Germany, England,
France, Austria, and Russia on our
manufactured products is certain to
remain demoralized-and thus we
will be fortunate if we do not lose
more than we can hope to gain in
new fields, with whose needs we are
not yet familiar, and to which it is
certain to require some years to adj
just ourselves.
Ii is the American farmer, how
ever, who has no complications
ahead of him, and whose flour, pork,
beef, mutton, and other foodstuffs
must be depended upon to make up
the shortage which is already loom
ing big in the distance because the
harvest fields of the most fertile Sec
tions of Europe have been convert
ed into a shambles for the contend
ing armies. Exports of bread-stuffs
from the United States in Novem
Der were valued at $40, $50, 900, or
almost four times as much as in No
vember of last year, while meat and
cattle exports amounted to nearly
SI4, 600, 900, or a gain of over 20
per cent over last year, and this de-
spite our miserable shipping faciti-
ties on the high seas.
In the light of these facts. was
there ever a time when the farmers
of Kansas and other Corn Belt states
can view the future with as much
assurance, or when they can so we'll
afford to treat fairly every other
great industry in the nation as now?
Putting it in he,terms of sound
business policy, was there ever a
time when they should do their part
to the end that American labor may
be proftably employed in all the
great channels of industry, and that
our transportation system may be
kept up to high point of efficiency,
so that it may adequately discharge
the heavy shipping burdens which
will undoubtedly descend upon it in
the not distant future?
No other single agency in the na-
tion has had more to do with the adj
Vancement of land values than have
the railroads, and as evidence of
this fact the proximity of farm to
the market almost invaribly fixes its
selling value. Kansas and every
other Central or Western state is
still in dire need Pt hundreds of
miles of additional railroad mileage,
and these new lines will not be built
until American railroad securities
are re-established as a paying in
vestment-and this. on the b sis of
present railroad earnings, is out of
the question. Nearly all our pres.
ent lines were built years ago, when
railroad inyeStmeLts we're looked
upon with favor at home and abroad
aud hence, If there is class of citi-
z.ns in the land who should be vital
ly interested in rescuing the rail.
roads from the pitiable plight in
which they find themselves at the
present Roment it is the farmer. As
matter of fact, we're it not so tire.
menduously far reaching in its ef.
feet, the controversy over slight
increase in railroad rates in any
great agricultural state would large