The Banner Year for Farmers In the annual report of Secretary Wilson of the Department of Agricuture the value of our farm crops for the year 1909 is given as $8,760,000,000, an increase of $869,000,000 over 1908. This means a total value of agricultural products very much the largest in the history of the country. Only eleven years ago the aggregate worth of these farm crops was just about half the figure for 1909. Corn is the chief contributor to the total, furnishing a value of $1,720,000,000. The year's cotton crop was worth $850,000,000; wheat, $725,000,000; hay, $665,000,000; oats, $400,000,000; potatoes, $212,000,000, and tobacco, $100,000,000. Secretary Wilson does not agree with Mr. J. J. Hill that the productivity of the soils of the country is decreasing. His report shows a tendency toward an increase for the last forty years in the average yields to the acre. It is true, however, that this does not preclude the possibility of a real decline in fertility, which may have been turned into increased productivity by a larger use of fertilizers, and more intensive methods of farming. It is easy to understand how the natural fertility of our soils may be decreasing; as a single instance, the sewage of half the population of the State of New York is wasted by being carried out to sea; this cannot but be dead loss to the soil year by year. Wheat Yield too small Mr. Hill's most impressive warning as to the agricultural future has been in. the matter of the wheat yield in proportion to population. It seems to be true that, while the wheat yields of Europe, Canada, and Australia are increasing faster than their populations, the crops of the United States and Argentina have increased in the past quarter century only 60 per cent., while the population has grown 68 per cent. Mr. Hill points out that this poor showing is due to our small yield of wheat per acre, as compared with other countries. With France's wheat yield, showing twenty bushels to the acre, Austria-Hungary's eighteen, Germany's twenty-eight, and Great Britain's thirty-two, the United States grows only fourteen bushels to the acre. Even Canada, with no more careful or intensive farming than is practiced on our own wheat farms, averages more than twenty bushels to the acre. But this is due to the recent exploitation of great areas of virgin soil. Prosperity Here and Abroad The National Association of Manufacturers has published the results of a symposium of 3000 members on the actual conditions of trade in America to-day and the prospects for the future. In the basic industry of iron and steel the percentage of excellent business is reported as 93, with a 100 percentage of excellence in future prospects. An average increase of prosperity since 1908 of no less than 57 per cent. is indicated in iron and steel. The most prosperous of all branches of trade now is in agricultural implements, with 100 per cent. in both present and future business, and a rebound from 1908 of 31 per cent. The least flourishing department of business is that of food products, with 87 per cent. of present prosperity; 78 per cent. of future excellence, and a recovery from 1908 of only 22 per cent. The figures for food products are affected, of course, by the peculiar conditions affecting the brewers at present, resulting from the prohibition movement. The most lively recovery from the depression of 1908 enjoyed by any single industry has been made in the vehicle trade, which comes to the front with an increase of 62 per cent. The sudden vast expansion in the demand for automobiles largely explains this. Labor Railroads The middle of December saw Troubles for the end of the strike of the switchmen on the Northwestern railroads, which had seriously tied up traffic for two weeks, and had forced the closing down of mines, smelters, and flour mills in Minnesota and Montana. The trouble ended in the quiet return of the employees to work without having secured the concessions they demanded. At the same time the Eastern roads are confronted with the prospect of demands to be made upon them in January by their firemen, conductors, and trainmen, who will demand an increase of from 10 to 30 per cent. in wages, and a number of concessions affecting the conditions of labor, the latter too complicated for the layman's ready understanding. Thirtytwo railroads east of Chicago are affected. The officers of the roads contend that while traffic has undoubtedly come back to their lines in the large volume of 1907, it is also true that wages were raised in 1906 and 1907, and that they were not reduced in the years of depression. They say flatly that the coming demands cannot be satisfied without a horizontal increase in freight rates. The employees base their demands on the in OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY, THE "BELL" COMBINATION WHICH RECENTLY PURCHASED CONTROL OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH creased cost of living, a fact as undeniable as it is portentous, and on the higher wages paid to Western trainmen. As to the last, the railroads reply that while it is true that higher wages are paid in the West, it is also true that freight rates are higher in the West in a greater proportion than wages. The news, on December 18, that the Pennsylvania Railroad had come to an amicable settlement with its locomotive engineers is a good augur that these differences may be adjusted without the waste and suffering of a strike, which, in the case of the anthracite dent of the American "Tel. & Tel." Com- resources of banks of all classes,-national pany, which owns the Bell patents, and which banks, State banks, savings banks, and loan through its recent purchase of control of the and trust companies, of $21,100,000,000. Western Union Telegraph will have an op- Of this huge sum, no less than $4,614,000,portunity to send both kinds of messages 000 consists of investments in bonds; railover the same wire, and demonstrate econo- road bonds alone account for $1,560,000,mies and better service to the public at the 000 and public utility bonds for $466,000,same price. Further discussion of this sub- ooo, while the holdings of State, county, and ject will be found on pages 116 and 117. A city bonds amount to over a billion dollars. week later, December 17th, the control of The total assets represented by commercial eight large "independent" telephone com- paper are considerably less than the bond panies passed to J. P. Morgan & Co., bank- holdings. This condition reinforces the criters, for the Bell interests. Thus a system icism of those who believe that our banks embracing 101,500 telephones and 40,000 have come to be, in too great degree, investmiles of long distance lines in Ohio, Indiana, ment concerns, rather than effective aids to and Michigan, previously the stronghold of trade activity, and that their operations the independents, will probably become as- might profitably be less bound up in Wall similated with the "Bell" lines in that terri- Street and directed more to the accommodatory, and ultimately have connections with tion of commercial borrowers. In the disthe entire 12,300,000-mile system,-although astrous time of 1907 every dollar of comit is announced that there will be no new mercial paper was paid at maturity at par, general holding company. and the chief advantage of the investment securities, namely, their marketability,— practically disappeared at the very juncture when this quality was most needed. In the Monetary Commission's interesting classification of the country's banking resources, it appears that the Middle Eastern States lead in per capita resources, with $450.19 per unit of population; the New England States come next with $433.60; the Pacific States third, with $347.78; the Middle Western, $190.64; the Far Western, $161.35, and the Southern States last, with $71.19 per capita. New York leads all the States, with $676.07; Massachusetts is next, with $517.25, and Arkansas shows the smallest, $41.14 per capita. A striking incident in the finanMr. Morgan Controls the cial happenings of last month was Equitable the purchase by Mr. J. P. Morgan of the stock control of the Equitable Life Assurance Association. It will be remembered that in 1905 this control was purchased from Mr. James Hazen Hyde by Mr. Thomas F. Ryan after internal dissensions in the company had led to a very serious rupture, and that the shares were turned over by Mr. Ryan to a voting trust, the members of which were Ex-President Grover Cleveland, Justice Morgan J. O'Brien, and Mr. George Westinghouse. The stock that has to Mr. Morgan is of insignificant amount in figures, but as giving the control of an institution with assets of nearly a halfbillion dollars, it is of decided importance. Much interest has been taken in Mr. Morgan's action and its motives. Superintendent Hotchkiss, of the New York State Insurance Department, has made personal inquiry as to Mr. Morgan's intentions, and reports that the financier's sole purpose was to prevent such distribution of the stock, after the expiration of the present voting trust, as would lead to detrimental consequences to the policyholders. Women's Laws Laws limiting the hours of factory labor for women have been on the statute books of some of our States for more than a third of a century, but not until 1908 was the federal Supreme Court called upon to decide on the constitutionality of such enactments. At that time in what was known as the Oregon case the court unanimously held that a State Legislature might pass a law prohibiting more than ten hours' work in one day for women in tactories and laundries. In June last the Illinois Legislature enacted a law identical in terms with the Oregon statute. A firm of paper box manufacturers obtained an injunction restraining the State Factory Inspector from enforcing the law on the ground that it interfered with women's freedom, prevented them from earning a living, OFFICERS OF THE AMERICAN TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH COMPANY, THE 'BELL" COMBINATION WHICH RECENTLY PURCHASED CONTROL OF THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH creased cost of living, a fact as undeniable as it is portentous, and on the higher wages paid to Western trainmen. As to the last, the railroads reply that while it is true that higher wages are paid in the West, it is also true that freight rates are higher in the West in a greater proportion than wages. The news, on December 18, that the Pennsylvania Railroad had come to an amicable settlement with its locomotive engineers is a good augur that these differences may be adjusted without the waste and suffering of a strike, which, in the case of the anthracite dent of the American "Tel. & Tel." Com- resources of banks of all classes,-national pany, which owns the Bell patents, and which banks, State banks, savings banks, and loan through its recent purchase of control of the and trust companies,-of $21,100,000,000. Western Union Telegraph will have an op- Of this huge sum, no less than $4,614,000,portunity to send both kinds of messages ooo consists of investments in bonds; railover the same wire, and demonstrate econo- road bonds alone account for $1,560,000,mies and better service to the public at the ooo and public utility bonds for $466,000,same price. Further discussion of this sub- 000, while the holdings of State, county, and ject will be found on pages 116 and 117. A city bonds amount to over a billion dollars. week later, December 17th, the control of The total assets represented by commercial eight large "independent" telephone com- paper are considerably less than the bond panies passed to J. P. Morgan & Co., bank- holdings. This condition reinforces the criters, for the Bell interests. Thus a system icism of those who believe that our banks embracing 101,500 telephones and 40,000 miles of long distance lines in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, previously the stronghold of the independents, will probably become assimilated with the "Bell " lines in that territory, and ultimately have connections with the entire 12,300,000-mile system, although it is announced that there will be no new general holding company. Mr. Morgan Equitable A striking incident in the finanControls the cial happenings of last month was the purchase by Mr. J. P. Morgan of the stock control of the Equitable Life Assurance Association. It will be remembered that in 1905 this control was purchased from Mr. James Hazen Hyde by Mr. Thomas F. Ryan after internal dissensions in the company had led to a very serious rupture, and that the shares were turned over by Mr. Ryan to a voting trust, the members of which were Ex-President Grover Cleveland, Justice Morgan J. O'Brien, and Mr. George Westinghouse. The stock that has come to Mr. Morgan is of insignificant amount in figures, but as giving the control of an institution with assets of nearly a halfbillion dollars, it is of decided importance. Much interest has been taken in Mr. Morgan's action and its motives. Superintendent Hotchkiss, of the New York State Insurance Department, has made personal inquiry as to Mr. Morgan's intentions, and reports that the financier's sole purpose was to prevent such distribution of the stock, after the expiration of the present voting trust, as would lead to detrimental consequences to the policyholders. have come to be, in too great degree, investment concerns, rather than effective aids to trade activity, and that their operations might profitably be less bound up in Wall Street and directed more to the accommodation of commercial borrowers. In the disastrous time of 1907 every dollar of commercial paper was paid at maturity at par, and the chief advantage of the investment securities, namely, their marketability,practically disappeared at the very juncture when this quality was most needed. In the Monetary Commission's interesting classification of the country's banking resources, it appears that the Middle Eastern States lead in per capita resources, with $450.19 per unit of population; the New England States come next with $433.60; the Pacific States third, with $347.78; the Middle Western, $190.64; the Far Western, $161.35, and the Southern States last, with $71.19 per capita. New York leads all the States, with $676.07; Massachusetts is next, with $517.25, and Arkansas shows the smallest, $41.14 per capita. Women's Laws Laws limiting the hours of factory labor for women have been on the statute books of some of cur States for more than a third of a century, but not until 1908 was the federal Supreme. Court called upon to decide on the constitutionality of such enactments. At that time in what was known as the Oregon case the court unanimously held that a State Legislature might pass a law prohibiting more than ten hours' work in one day for women in factories and laundries. In June last the Illinois Legislature enacted a law identical in terms with the Oregon statute. A firm of paper box manufacturers obtained an injunction restraining the State Factory Inspector from enforcing the law on the ground that it interfered with women's freedom, prevented them from earning a living, |