392 BOARD OF AGRICUJ-TURE. 



dustry of our State and country. Great strides have been made along the 

 lines of production, but little has been said on the great question of dis- 

 tribution. In the midst of plenty are paupers and hungry people, yet 

 the missionary raises his voice for the Hindoo and the Chinaman. Over- 

 production and under-consumption don't exist, nor ever did if the pro- 

 ducer and consumer can be brought together; hence the question of dis- 

 tribution. 



Our insular possessions open another market for the American farmer; 

 how are they going to affect our markets? The results of the vpar with 

 Spain added to our territory 125,000 square miles and ten millions of 

 people. This, added to our late acquisition of the Hawaiian Islands, 

 makes our insular possessions over 130,000 square miles, and adds more 

 than ten million to our population. Before many years this will be in- 

 creased, perliaps, by 50,000 square miles of Cuba and one and a half mil- 

 lions of her population. The problem of the development of this vast 

 extent of fertile tropical territory, when taken hold of by American brain, 

 brawn and energy, is unsolved, yet the farmers of the States may and 

 should apprehend some changes. 



Alaska, being purchased at $7,200,000 sixteen years ago, was deri- 

 sively referred to as a valueless frozen country, but its returns have been 

 $150,000,000 in furs, fish and gold. And, in return, it takes annually $10,- 

 000,0(0 of our farm products and merchandise, which benefits every 

 laborer and faruler in our country. 



Porto Rico has added wonderfully to her annual aggregate, in sugar, 

 cotton and tobacco, under American rule. 



The American people are an intensely practical people. They are 

 enthusiastic, progressive, and wherever they raise the stars and stripes it 

 never, never trails the dust. 



Under its beneficent protection indlAidual opportunities are insured 



The promoters of extortionate and speculative trusts do not develop 

 the resources of a country, but hinder and restrict the development. They 

 appropriate the wealth that others create, and by concentrating it in the 

 hands of the few, they check production by limiting opportunities and are, 

 therefore, injurious to general prosperity. Get-rich-quick trusts, fraudu- 

 lent trusts, that great tribe of public robbers, are not confounded with the 

 honest men whose superior ability, industry and integrity have brought 

 them legitimate wealth. 



They confer no benefits on the community. Their money is fraud- 

 ulently obtained, and the laws should hold them as public criminals. 



Secretary Wilson reviews at length the production and exports of 

 American agricultui-al products. The inc'rcase in the exports of farm 

 products for the half century ended 1901 was from $147.(100,000 to $952,- 

 000,000 — 550 per cent. The exports of farm products for the closing de- 

 cade of the last century was over $700,000,000. and for 1903 over $878.- 

 000,000. an amount second only to that of 1901. 



