Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1916-09-08

nave heard 1t seriously daclarad
Oy men who ought to know that IN
'ne last two years the average price
Oh American wheat ought to have
peen from five to six cents nor
pushel higher than it has been. tho
foreign lack of confidence in orr
grades being chiefly responsible for
this difference.
Every wheat grower in the coun-
try has concern with this Iagislo.
ton. After the end of the war there
Is likely to be period within which
the world will have larger produc-
tion of grain, especially wheat. than
1t will need. If this conjecture
proves correct, American wheat will
need all the character it can get in
order to command its reasonable
price both abroad and at home.
The department of agriculture has
other important work under consid-
GRAFTON also, and fortunately the
means for carrying it forward.
The first appropriation bill ever
passed for the department of agri-
culture was in 1881. 1t carried
S253,3O0. This year the bill for that
department carried almost S25,0OO.-
900, and the hearings before commit
tees and discussions in the two cham
bers were among the most volum-
nous held on any appropriations bill.
The department has really become
one of the most important in the gov
ernment. I doubt if jany other
touches the interests of all the people
at so many points. Not only does it
deal with agricultural production,
the greatest single industry. but it
also embraces jurisdiction over the
forest and lumber interests, admins
tiers the meat inspection and pure
food laws, controls the weather bu-
reau and the great crop reporting
service, embraces the great fabric of
social and economic services, and will
hereafter control, through it's office
of roads, the national governments
activities in building modern roads
throughout the country.
The Importance of this last men
toned item may be judged from the
fact that this years appropriation
legislation not only grants $6,000,-
600 as a national contribution to-
ward road building. but authorizes
future expenditures in this direction
that in a few years will aggregate
about s85,O0O,OO0.
Now that the legislation has
passed, and federal cooperation with
the states in bodybuilding is assured,
there is almost universal satisfaction
with the step that congress has taken.
| have heard men say that before
another decade the federal appropri-
alton for this road budget would he
one of the largest each year. | have
no doubt they are right. Men say
that this years beginning in this
direction represents the opening of a
barrel out of which a billion dollars
of federal money will be drawn with
in the next % years, to be spent on
highways.
Quite possibly they are right. 1t
is amazing to note how fast govern
ment expenses increase, equally
amazing to observe how regularly the
federal treasury manages to raise the
money to meet them.
The rural free delivery of mails
was not started until 1895, and If
anybody had remotely suspected at
that time that within 20 years it
would be costing $50,000,000 a year
the project would have been dropped
forever.
Yet today congress not only APP
propriates its $50,O00,000 for this
service. but turns a deaf ear to a
postmaster General who assures it
that he could get the service for less
money and asks that the appropr'a-
ton be reduced BY Judson G. Well
liver in Farm and Fireside.