68 THE GREAT WAR 



dence must be placed in all stresses by a people endeavour- 

 ing to maintain economic self-sufficiency. . . . An occu- 

 pation that has produced such an unthinkable value as 

 one aggregating 5,000 million dollars (about 1000 

 millions sterling) within a year may be better measured 

 by some comparisons. All of the gold mines of the 

 entire world have not produced, since Columbus dis- 

 covered America, a greater wealth of gold than the 

 farmers of this country have produced in wealth in two 

 years. This year's product is over six times the amount 

 of capital stock of all national banks ... it is two and 

 a half times the gross earnings from the operation of the 

 railways ; and it is three and a half times the value of 

 all minerals produced in the country, including coal, 

 iron ore, gold, silver and quarried stone." 



All these foreign countries, while not neglecting 

 other industries, protect agriculture as the sheet- 

 anchor of national prosperity. They are careful to 

 found their national economy on the rock of agri- 

 culture, while we, alone among nations, found it on 

 the sandy soil of commercialism. 



Anyone who travels by road through this 

 country with his eyes open must notice the long 

 stretches of grass land by the waysides and at 

 the corners where roads meet, all of which could 

 be cultivated. 



