Gunnison news-champion., 1917-10-19
WHEN THE MINES WERE CLOSED
Eugene II. Grubb:

Few persons realize how dependent
we all are upon livestock for our food
supply which must be made ample and
at moderate cost to the masses, rich or
poor. No successful agriculture has
been or ever Will be permanent and
long enduring without farm animals
to convert our grass and waste pro-
ducts into cheap food and to keep our
soils up to the highest productivity.
Whenever live stock has been elimin-
ated from the farms agriculture has
declined TO so low an acre yield that
no profits have resulted. New En-
gland. New York and Pennsylvania
have been almost agriculturally aban-
doncd. Once most pOpulOus and pros
porous with the best products of our
civilization, this AREA reared and de-
veloped the great men OF this nation
in every endcavOr Of life and advance
ment.
We see evidences of similar deterior-
alton now cropping out in the central
parts of the United States along the
Mississippi and Missouri valleys where
siNty-cight per cent Of the farms are
operated by tenants Those tenants
are of the human race and are not Of
live stock. In Colorado and the ir-
rigated west our crops are surely de-
clinine in yields and profits and our
soil fertility is being constantly ship
ped By the train load 10 other parts
OF the land. The decline of our herds,
studs and hocks resulted from the
loss of our silver mining industry and
started on its downward plunge in
1898. 1t did not stop until our breed
ing and feeding stocks were so de-
cimated that we had insufficient for
our own needs, much less for export
One has TO know what conditions ex-
listed in the period of our successful
development of the mountains and the
west when silver was part of our
monetary system. When the silver
mines were closed one of the best
markets of the live stock industry was
+. lost. Shutting down the mines threw
thousands of miners out of employ
ment. Like a cyclone, it closed the
smelters, shut down the coke ovens
and in turn all or nearly all the coal
mines, stopped the building Of rail-
ways, towns and cities, irrigation can
ais and reservoirs.
] Every kind of labor was at q stand
I still. There was no market for the
/ commodities of the manufacturers of
the east who discharged their wage
earners. Here in the west with all
this former activity and prosperity
what home market the growers of
I live stock had. 1t utilized the cheaper
class of cattle and sheep; only the best
went to the markets of the east. This
/ general shut down naturally sent off
| "A HnnI nf live Sfn~L 70 tha he
centers and broke the market, caus-
/ ing panic among the stockmen. This
made the markets more panicky. AS
a result we never knew we had a
| shortage until our stock was exhaus-
ted. The few districts that had cattle
and sheep to sell even at panic prices
enabled our merchants to meet their
bills in the east. But live stock, as
always, saved the day and our credit
When our cattle and sheep were all
gone the irrigators and dry farmers
had to resort to arabic methods. They
have been plowing and seeding grain
and potatoes which has exhausted
their last resources. We have not
| sufficient live stock to maintain the
plant food and keep up soil fertility.
The building up process will be slow,
long and arduous. What a hope to
the grazier and tiller of the soil is the
resumption of our silver mining. But
few Denver business men realized the
hardships and trials our large Colo
rado rural population had been endur-
ing until the terrible foreign war SO
enhanced prices of our farms and
herds for us. But what price we
will have to pay for our financial
prosperity! Silver is intimately as
sociated with the prosperity of the
masses Of the whole world, the wage
Garner, producer, consumer and es-
pecially the American farmer. 1t
little matters whether he is a grower
of cereals, vegetables, fruits or live
stock, and it must come back il the
people of the entire world are not to
| no=ssh f.e.-a a. L.. - 4