NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 2, 1899 
¥1 PER YEAR, 
" THE FARMER FEEDS THE WORLD.” 
HE PAY'S 1TNCI.E SAM’S BILLS. 
He Is a Big Man at Figures. 
A BACK SEAT.—Our picture this week is worth 
studying. In National affairs, or in fact, wher¬ 
ever money is supposed to talk, the manufacturer is 
voted a great man. If there be a tariff law to be 
made, a railroad bill to be passed, a new method of 
taxation to be considered, or any other tinkering 
with the life blood of the country, the manufacturer 
is given first chance to state his views, and he al¬ 
ways secures the lion’s share of the benefits. It has 
somehow come to be understood that the manufac¬ 
turer is our worthiest citizen. Many Americans have 
gone crazy over the dream that we are to become 
noted chiefly as a Nation of manufacturers, forgetting 
that America is, first 
of all, a land for the 
production of food and 
fiber. Of late years, 
Agriculture has gained 
in dignity and in the 
spirit of assertiveness, 
and we are coming to 
the point when the true 
value of the farmer to 
human society will be 
recognized and remem¬ 
bered. 
FOUNDATION OF 
TRADE.—It is easy to 
forget the origin of 
things when we are in 
the habit of considering 
only our own little part 
at the end of the line. 
Go through tue great 
produce exchanges in 
our large cities. One 
would think to hear 
the dealers talk of their 
great operations, that 
they were really some¬ 
thing more than mere 
handlers and sellers. 
The whole foundation of 
their great business 
rests in the final an¬ 
alysis on the stout hand 
and wrist of the man 
who milks the cow. The 
soft-handed, well-dress¬ 
ed man who sells the 
butter and cheese and 
makes a good share of 
the money, gets most of 
the glory and fun; but 
after all, the world owes more to the man back 
on the lonely farm, who spends his life “pull¬ 
ing teats.” At one end of the line is the great 
egg dealer who rules the market, while at the other 
is the farmer’s girl who goes hunting hens’ nests in 
the hay mow. Let there be a banquet to the Presi¬ 
dent, and some representative of the great cotton 
exchanges will be put forward to glorify the handling 
and shipping of the fiber. Why do such men forget 
that it is the black thumb and finger of the negro who 
picked the cotton in the first place, that enables them 
to build their vast buildings and cover the ocean 
with their ships? So it is that most of these vast 
mercantile enterprises rest primarily in the strong 
hand of the farmer—a hand strong enough to cripple 
them if it would, yet generous enough to permit them 
as mere handlers to take such a large proportion of 
credit and cash for the goods he produces. 
BALANCE OF TRADE.—Now and then, however, 
the figures show what a giant the farmer really is. 
Somehow, nations, like families, lose their heads over 
the foreign or outside market. Money that comes 
from a distance or from strangers seems somehow 
more useful or valuable than any other. Thus, during 
the past few years, especially, we have heard much 
about America’s foreign trade. There was a time 
when the balance of trade was almost or quite 
against us—that is, we bought so many foreign goods 
that our own exports were not large enough to off¬ 
set our bills. We can all remember what an outcry 
there was when it required millions of gold to pay 
our balances abroad, because the foreigners did not 
buy enough of our goods to offset their sales to us. 
What a feeling of satisfaction there was when, at 
last, the tide turned, and gold came flowing back to 
this land to even up the vast sales from our farms. 
Yes, from our farms, for it was the American farmer 
who turned the scale. As he dug the food and fiber 
out of his farm, he dug gold out of the European 
strong boxes, and built up our wonderful export trade. 
FIGURES DON’T LIE.—The picture shows the 
comparative size of the farmer as an exporter com¬ 
pared with the much-talked-of manufacturer. The 
latter makes a brave showing in the newspapers 
or in Congress, but when he comes actually to chalk 
down the goods he exports, he has to use a ladder 
to get anywhere near the farmer’s shoulders. The 
figures given are the exports for the year 1898. The 
total products of the factory sent abroad were worth 
$290,697,354. This is less than the mere item of bread- 
stuffs alone. It is about equal to the combined cot¬ 
ton, animals and fruit! You will see that, for all his 
talk, the manufacturer is a pretty small man when it 
comes to paying our foreign debts. What a noise has 
been made about the way Americans are selling bi¬ 
cycles to Europeans. We are selling just about the 
same value in fruit, yet who thinks of praising the 
American fruit grower for his great enterprise? We 
sent $1,902,153 worth of typewriters and $2,642,779 
worth of hops; $3,136,364 worth of sewing machines, 
and $6,176,569 worth of horses; $70,406,885 worth of 
iron and steel, and $145,684,659 worth of wheat. In the 
3,850,264,295 pounds of cotton which went abroad 
that year, there was work for thousands who earned 
their daily bread by merely handling and looking at 
it. The time will surely come when some great 
speaker will be honest enough io talk about as fol¬ 
lows: “Yes, I am an American business man. I 
marshall millions. I stand at the gates of the coun¬ 
try, and load the ships that carry the wealth of the 
Nation abroad. I unload the miles of cars that come 
over the rails with the Nation’s freight. I do all this, 
but I do not forget that, 
after all, the man back 
on the farm comes 
nearer to the living 
heart of my country. I 
do not forget that, while 
we of the market place 
may sort and handle 
and sell, the farmer is, 
after all, the only actual 
producer along the 
whole line, and that to 
him, more than to any 
other, is due the stabil¬ 
ity and prosperity of 
this country.” 
OVERDOING FOR¬ 
EIGN TRADE—There 
is one other side to this 
export trade, that must 
not be forgotten. In 
the craze to establish 
a vast foreign trade, it 
is possible to do injus¬ 
tice to the home mar¬ 
ket. For example, our 
manufacturers of iron 
and steel products have 
been, for years, striving 
for a trade in foreign 
markets. It is claimed 
that, in order to com¬ 
pete with England and 
Germany, they have cut 
prices almost to the 
point of cost, in order 
to establish their trade. 
One result ot this has 
been an enormous in¬ 
crease in the exports 
of iron and steel. 
This has now come to the point where the price of 
these metals in the home market has so advanced that 
consumers are put to considerable loss. Those who 
buy iron pipes, machinery, wire or other metal prod¬ 
ucts, will realize the truth of these statements. A 
good share of this increase has been due to the de¬ 
velopment of the foreign market. Prices c f meats are 
now rising steadily, and it is claimed that the same 
thing is true of the meat market, namely, the great 
increase of foreign shipments has so cleared up the 
home market, that prices are sure to rise. Germany 
pays a bounty to sugar producers, which was designed 
to shut off imports from other countries, and at the 
same time, io encourage exports of sugar from Ger¬ 
many. The result is that German sugar is said to be 
sold for less money in the English market than 
in the German market; in other words, owing to this 
craze for development of the foreign markets, the 
Englishman pays less for German sugar than it caa 
S'a.'C'tcrrt 
S290.697.3S4- 
UmmtUPUmffO^ ' JiVn % st ^- *7 Mo6.S6&. 
* . if’ 8 ’ 33 ' 857 J - CMviSomlU fSZ,/SV.8^ 
-tf/uivt, $9,0/3.3/0.~ SCeatfev, SZU/S.t)^ 
Cotton, $2do,wz.2./Sr Cotton, $/7.ozi.o92. 
\0km4imU-. M7,3qo,96 o> 5 0982/9 
#6.8%.S29, 
feip | Tjmjdcmenfs, $/jj 6o9.732- 
TIIElBIG FARMER AND HIS LITTLE BROTHER. Fig. 233. 
