10 13be Conservative *
The World's Future Wheat Supply.
Sir William Crookcs' presidential ad
dress before the British association at
Bristol , England , was one of the sensa
tions of the day and has caused much
discussion. It related to the world's fu
ture supply of wheat , and the speaker
claimed that the failure of the world's
power to supply the rapidly augmenting
millions of its population with this
kind of important food was clearly
within sight. Ho premised that this
cereal is an essential factor of diet for
the progressive and dominating races ;
that no substitute could possibly tak < 3
its place ; that the cumulated experi
ence of civilized mankind had sot wheat
apart as the one great brain and muscle
making food , an experience also justi
fied by the chemistry of nutrition. Aft
er an elaborate study of statistics to es
tablish his contention that the growth
of the wheat using nations and the rapid
extension of that use are fast outrun
ning the agricultural pace and the pos
sible utilization of suitable areas , UB
sums up in brief. The definite state
ment is that should all the wheat grow
ing countries bo worked to their full
capacity they would only give an addi
tion of about 100,000,000 acres. .Reck
oning the yield at the present world average
erago of 12.7 bushels , 1,270,000,000
bushels would bo just enough to supply
the increase among bread eaters till
1931. Then the pinch will como , and
Sir William Crookes queries , where
can bo grown the additional 330,000,000
bushels required ten years later by a
hungry world ?
The remedy must bo found in the
laboratory which must furnish an arti
ficial fertilizer sufficient enriching and
sufficiently low priced to increase the
yield of wheat vastly without proportionately
tionately increasing the cost of produc
tion. The necessary aliment of wheat
growth is some form of fixed nitrogen
The present available forms in which
this exists on a largo scale are the ref
use of coal gas making , guuuo deposits
and nitrate of soda , but it is alleged
by this inexorable statistician's figures-
that all these will fail to furnish the
needed supply within the next genera
tion at the increasing rate of use. So
recourse must be had to the artificial
production of this all important soil
food. In its free state nitrogen is the
most abundant and pervading of bodies
as found in the atmosphere. The prob
lem is the successful fixation of nitrogen
in quantity and cost of production. This ,
the speaker assured his audience , could
bo accomplished surely through elec
tricity. But it would not bo from coal
and steam engines. Only water power
transformed into electricity on a gigan
tic scale would do the work with such
energy and economy as to yield the 12-
000,000 tons of nitrate top dressing
which would bo required to raise the
world's needed yield of wheat. This was
perfectly practicable , and the speaker ,
after his cheerless prognostications in
the outset , ends with a rosy promise :
"A preliminary calculation shows that
there need bo no fear on this score.
Niagara alouo is capable of supplying
the requisite electrical energy without
much lessening its mighty flow. The
future can take care of itself. The arti
ficial production of uitrato is clearly
within view and by its aid the land devoted -
voted to wheat can bo brought up to the
30 bushels per aero standard. In days
to come , when the demand may again
overtake tbo supply , wo may safely
leave our successors to grapple with the
stupendous food problem. "
Simlliu Stmilibu.s.
The disease of anarchy as a political
and social evil has rooted itself danger
ously in many parts of Europe and oven
affected to some degree free and happy
America. The recent startling outcome
of the disease has made the powers of
civilization more alert to devise some
means of controlling , if they cannot ex
tirpate , the malady. It has been proposed
that each nation should exile the pro
fessors of this doctrine from its borders ,
so far as they become known by expres
sion of opinion. This of course would
go far toward checking the propaganda
as well as of ridding the country of the
more blatant and garrulous apostles of
the dreadful gospel. The effect , how
ever , would bo to send an army of this
human vermin into the more hospitable
regions of the free nations where the
doctrine of free opinion , as long as it
is confined to speech , is looked on as
the cornerstone of liberty. To inflict so
alarming a nuisance , which easily be
comes a civil danger , on one's neigh
bors , oven if done in self defense , is
scarcely generous , for even in case of
a belief , which , conjoining itself with
the various shades of natural insanity ,
so quickly leaps from opinion into mur
derous action , such countries as Eng
land and America would scarcely feel
justified , it is to bo feared , in taking
harshly repressive measures.
That something must bo done , how
ever , to shut down the gates against
the infection aud propagation of anarchy
is quite clear. Perhaps a mild measure ,
which would have the value of a great
experiment in sociology as well as of
penal justice , might recommend itself
indeed to oven the freest countries ,
which value the rights of individualism
as a eucred heritage. This project has
in it a curative element and justifies it
self in the form of criticism as an ad
mirable "argumentum ad hominem" in
its application to the philosophy of an
archy. It proposes to grant to these fa
natics the most favorable possible oppor
tunity for proving the oflicacy of their
theories of society
Anarchy as an intellectual belief
bases its appeal for a following on a few
fundamental principles -firstly , before
a healthful social order can bo reestablished
lished the whole system at present dom
inant must bo disintegrated from base
to pinnacle ; secondly , murder of indi
viduals as one of the means of attacking
the props of existing society is perfectly
justifiable as n means to an end ; - thirdly
ly , that the right cannot bo denied to
the individual anarchist to exorcise his
personal judgment in committing such
murders. In other words , it is per
missible for each philosopher of this
school to act as judge and executioner
The anarchists , however , profess to deplore -
ploro the necessity of murder , oven as
Robespierre shed tears over the alleged
necessity of sending some hundred or
two victims to Sauson's kuifo each day
of the "Terror. "
To procure a field for the fullest and
freest practice of anarchistic reform ,
tbeii , it is necessary that society should
first be in a state of nature , a virgin
soil , so to speak. The nearest possible
approach to this would bo one of the
moro savage regions of equatorial Afri
ca. Here , where false civilization ban
never yet planted its debasing influ
ences , the anarchists could build up
their glorious edifice. There would bo
no temptation to kill , unless to slay the
black cannibal desirous of trying an an
archistic roast , or else to kuifo each
otber out of the lust of habit. Provided
with seeds and tools wherewith to cul
tivate the soil and to build houses , with
weapons and ammunition for self de
fense , unhampered by the civilization
which they detest , they could try the
experiment of creating their millen
nium , which the world would watch
with interest. The nations could easily
arrange together to herd these dissentients -
tionts as fast as possible and to share
the expense of deporting them to an
African paradise among wild beasts and
wilder men. Hero they could try to
work out their own salvation without
let or hindrance. The world is invited
to consider this suggestion as a happy
solution of a troublesome problem.
Governor Bloxham of Florida has
called a convention of state governors
and their proper advisors to meet m
Tampa in February to consider proper
measures to put the interests of the mil
itia of the country on a uniform footing
of regulations and training and to con
sider all questions affecting their in
creased efficiency. It in a project full of
splendid possibilities and a credit to
the state that such a suggestion should
have como from its excellent executive
Before the recent election the imperial
Gorman government was serious in its
purpose of forcing a law through the
Reichstag greatly abridging the suf
frage. Now that the government has won
the emperor thinks ho can afford to wait
for another season But it is wise to take
time by the forelock The next election
may leave government without a major
ity
No man is Hatisfied with his own for
tune or dissatisfied with his own wit.