The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1918-12-19
Written especially for The Gazette
Times by
EDWARD N. HURLEY
Chairman of the United States
Shipping Board.


Shipping Board
Thousands of farmers through the
west remember the times in the
eighties and nineties when corn was
worth more to burn tnan to SELL
. lnanCfacluring output then
was roundly $3.50 per capita for tie
whole population of the United
S 3 at is, in 1890, the corn-bur-
ming period.
,l!ue of farm in 1890 to
each farmer tilling the soil was
$4,000. The value of products that
each factory worker made in 1890
was $4,000. The average wages of
the factory worker were $49O per
year.
Then came the great industrial
expansion, beginning about 1898,
which paused only once or twice.
In 1914 nobody would have
thought of burning corn or any other
farm product, for farmers were
prosperous along with the factory
workers.
BY that time we were making
SPAS worth Of goods per capita, or
$1,000 per factory worker. The
factory workers wages had risen to
$3.50 year, and the rusult was
CT arly shown in the value Of farm
which was then $4,000 for every per-
son engaged in tiling the soil.
think this shows pretty clearly
that the farmers market and his
prosperity are linked closely with
our industrial prosperity | have
quoted these figures because | be-
leye 20 years from now the statis-
ticians will be able to compare the
factory output and wages and farm
values Of 1898 with those of today
and show perhaps even more re-
markable increase.
Stand at Threshold OF Greatest
Prosperity.
We are now on the verge of an
even greater industrial advance than
in 1898; an extension of production
a4u mmerce in world trade to the
American merchant marine and the
new banking laws and other recent
legislation which will help us to put
our ships on new trade routes all
over the globe.
AS a business man, the farmer has
both a direct and indirect interest
in these ships, besides his investment
as an American.
Direct benefits will come to him
through direct sales of'his products
to foreign countries, breeding an
imals to South America, fruit and
dairy products to Europe and Orient,
and the like.
Indeed, the farmer, through his
cooperative marketing organizations
and his government can do much
directly to promote new world mar
kets.
But the direct returns of the
American merchant marine to the
farmer will be even greater.
BY selling our factory goods
abroad, we can increase the output.
When you increase the output Of
a factory, in most cases, you are able
to reduce cost of production, and also
prices.
For increased output means that
people haye steadier work and that
overhead expenses, such as rent, in
surance, depreciation, ETC., are
spread over a greater volume of bus
iness.
With world markets in which to
sell, our manufacturers can keep
their plants running through the
year. They can give factory workers
more work each year.
The American factory worker lives
we'll. Give him more wages, and the
first expenditure he makes is at the
grocery store and the butcher shop
for more and better food.
So the American merchant marine
and world trade are about to put
more dollars into our factories, and
many of those dollars will 60 to the
farmers for food.
Another interesting phase Of world
trade for this country, when our
M nnrnhant m rina is In nnara tinn will