Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 14).djvu/205

 It means that the raw material will come to our different towns, villages, and cities at an extremely low cost, and that we will then be able to compete with the manufacturing industries of the great Middle West. Unless this is done, there is but one alternative, that this great State lose its commercial supremacy, which would also mean a great loss in population. People must be employed. If they cannot secure work they will go to that market where their services can be utilized at good wages.

"The farmers of this State must remember that conditions have changed in regard to the products of the farm. Eastern farmers cannot, because of natural conditions, produce grain and meat products as well as Western farmers can. Therefore, Eastern farmers cannot profitably compete in these products. They think that cheap grain and provision freights from the West to the seaboard give Western farm products a still greater advantage, and therefore are opposed to them. That may be true; but will choking the Erie Canal, so that the New York Central Railroad Company can