The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 25, 1895, Page 7

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1%95. 9 ve been made, some heavy losses have en incurred, and disappointment rather than svccess has rewarded nota few, vet to-day San Joaquin Valley stands well to the front in her horticultural products, and while not arrogantly claiming supe- riori yet firmly insists upon at least eq v with any other partof the State in the production of numerous varieties of £ The adaptability of the soil and climate of the San Joaquin Vailey to the produc- tion of fruit has never had so marked an i tration as in the raisin industry. The commencement of raisin production in this State was 4n one of the ‘Sacramento Vulley counties. Then the far south fol- lowed, and for some time those localities had a monopoly of it. Then experiments were made at Fresno, in the face of the discouragement, and almost at & bound that.section took pre-eminence and has maintained it ever since, promising to re- ain for all'time the raisin-producing cen- r of the State. From esno this industry spread into the adjoining counties of Merced, Tulare Kern, until it is safe to say that nine- tenths of the vast raisin output of the State comes from the counties named, with “Baby Kings” added—that having beenr a portion of Tulare. It is true, in commoh with all other lines of business, and particularly with that of agricultural and horticultural, the raisin industry has for two or three years suffered great de- pression. This is due to a variety of causes. Raisin vineyards were planted in many localities unfitted for them; many went into the business who were in no way adapted to it, while others were so careless in their methods of curing and packing the fruit that dealers in tue East to a great extent grew distrustful of raisi: California brand. The prospects for those who have per- sisted in retaining their interests in the | i ©dustry, however, are brightening. improved methods of marketing, | years it is quite reasonable to suppose, bachapi,” was to write himself down asa rank ignoramus. The mere suggestion was hooted at, and the choicest shaits of satire, ridicule and even brutal and sense- less abuse were aimed at the suggester. Time passed on—not so long atime, either—and pretty soon the papers in Tulare, Fresno and Kern commenced to tell abouta few oranges being gathered there from trees only three or four years old. Then the mirth broke out again. Time passed on again. The orange- growers of the San Joaquin Valley pos- sessed their souls in patience and attended strictly to business. Pretty soon a carload or two of the golden fruit was shipped from hither and yon, and while not making any specia! to do about it the valley still felt a justifiable pride in its achievements in this direction. repeated, only this time it was varied. No longer was it said “You can't raise oranges north of the Tebachapi!” Now it was, “Huh! what’s a earload or two?” Pretty soon there came a dozen carloads at a time from various localities, and then it came about that the dealers in San Francisco began to look actually to the San Joaquin Valley for their earliest oranges for the holiday trade. And not only did they look, but they got the-orangesas well. But still the sneer came back: “What'sa dozen carloads by the side of our big crop or eight or ten tbousand carloads?”’ Now it has reached upward of a hundred carloads, and all in only about six years from the time the first ‘commercial” orange orchard was planted in the San Joagquin Valleye Considering that they have been raising oranges commercially ever since 1855, while the San Joaquin Valley has been in the ley has been growing oranges forty or fifty from the rate of progress already made, h greater care in preparation and with | eral revival in all kinds of business | which it seems impossible to delay much | longer, there must be a revival in this | prominent f e of California’s horti- | cultural resources. The fact that raisins are still regarded by the majority as a | 1 only to be indulged in asa treat, | prevents any great increase in the demand | for them until a general business revival | and an access of prosperity makes it pos- | sible for the great mass of the people to | resume their former style of living. But not alone does the San Joaquin Valley. excel in the production of large quantities of the choicest raisins. The hot, dry climate of that region is particu- | larly favorable for the produc i grapes containing a large percentage of sngar, and therefore admirably adapted for conversion into sweet wine and brandy. Miilions of gallons of those products come from s region, principally from the Fresno section, whose extensive ars have a wide reputation. E sl has been largely invested in such enterprises, and the products of the Fresno wine-grape vineyards appear to find as ready a sale as any and are largely shipped abroad. Table grapes for Eastern shipment are another favorite crop with | those who have experimented in that direction, and such good results have at- tended this feature of the horticultural in- dusiry, particularly the production of very late fruit suitable to the holiday trade, that this promises to become a prominent feature of San Joaquin Valley horticulture. Of the deciduous fruits produced in any part of California there are none that do not attain perfection in the broad San Valley. It bas always been quite ary for enthusiastic writers to claim , that or some other more or less ited locality the sole possession of the t to be called “the home’ of this, that or the other variety of fruit, and the possession of characteristics of soil, climate, etc., which made it simply im- possible, from their standpoint, for any other locality to successfully compete with | the chosen one in that particular branch. | Time.has shown the fallacy of all such | claims and the term *“all” is used ad- visedly. Perbaps one of the most deeply seated of these “‘exclusive home’’ ideasis that which may be called the “prune superstition.” All through the San Joaquin Valley | prunes are now being produced which sell sh for as good prices asany and rank as high | and Raymond of Kern County show what | in quality as any. The valley has made good her claim that while she might not be.able to produce better prunesthan other localities, sbe could at least produce those which were just as good. Extensive plant- ings have been made in all parts of the valley, and from now on the prune output wiil increase rapidly. While modest in itsclaims in the respects noted, there is one point upon which this valley chal- lenges the rest of the State, and that isthe production of the largest amount of fresh prunes upon a single tree yet recorded in California. As high as 1100 pounds of fresh prunes have been gathered from a single tree at Visalia, while a single tree in Kern County has prodnced over 1300 pounds at a single gathering. In the way of peaches, apricots, necta- | rines, pears, etc., the San Joaquin Valley | does not propose to ‘“‘take a back seat” | with any other portion of the State, nor yet does she arrogate to herself the sole Tight to the only “front pew.” The apri- | cot, especially, is a favorite here and for good reason. All aprieot growers and handlers know that the great difficulty with that fruit is to persuade it to ripen | evenly. In many localities, where it is largely produced, climatic conditions are such that he fruit ripens unevenly, be- coming mellow on one side, while still hard and green on the other. This diffi- calty is not encountered in the San Joa- quin Valley, the apricot ripening evenly | and thoroughly, and there being also an | entire absence of the scale or fungus which | injures the appearance of so much fruit where there is more moisture in the atmos- | phere and the warmth in the ripening geason is more intermittent. The horticulturists of the San Joaquin | Valley have demolished yet another vopu- | Jar superstition, which may be called the | wirrigated-fruit fallacy.” For many years it was a theory widely beld and industri ously propagated that fruit raised with | the aid of irrigation could not possibly be | as good as that which was raised without | artificial moistvre. It was ‘‘overgrown, mushy, lacked flavor and could not be suc- cessfully shipped.” The idea in each and every detail has been exploded by the fruit-growers of the San Joaquin Valley. The fact that it is as good as any and in- ferior to none is sufficient for them, as it has completely punctured the old super- stition so sedulously fostered by those who had the ill fortune to have pitched their tents and planted their orchards where irrigation is not only unknown but abso- lutely impracticable. There is yet another horticultural super- gtition which bas received its death blow in the San Joaquin Valley. This was the hardest of all to overcome and was the last to succumb—indeed, has bardly yet been entirely exploded. Reference is had to the “citrus belt” fallacy. Time was, and not so very long ago either, when for one to merely suggest the possibility that an orange or & lemon could be produced north of that magical line called “‘the Te- ion of wine! wine | | tions there is a vast extent. | wains tributary to this valley. i that a hundred times as many oranges will be produced and shipped as now. But to take up the general thread of this article: Nowhere in California has the cuitivation of the fig reached greater suc- cess than in the San Joaquin Valley. It may have been fully as successiul else- where, but certainly not more so. The ex tensive experiments of Denicke at Fresno Again was the old sneer | business for but five or six years, there can- | | not be the slightest doubt that the crop of | this valley will be outranked a hundred- | fold; but by the time the San Joaguin Val- 'THE VALLEY ROAD. A Brief Review of the Work Already Done on the New Line That Will i Traverse the Great San Joaquin Valiey. Written for THE CALL By W. B. STOREY JR. Chief of the ¥ngincering Corps. From the beginning of railroad building in this State, in the late '50's, to the pres- cnt time, there have been many roads or- | ganized and started; some with large promise and brilliant prospects and others with bat limited aims. Gradually all | these roads have been absorbed by and in- corporated into one system, operated and | controlled by one corporation. At the | present time, therefore, the carrying busi- | ness of the State is in the hands of one | great railroad. ‘This one road has been able, by virtue of its great power, to crush out and keep | down sll attempts to start rival projects. | The cash value of nearly one-third of the | entire gross product of the great interior | of the State passes into its hands, and in recent times no one has been found bold | enough and daring enough to risk capital | intrying to share this great business. A | feeling of hopelessness had fallen on our | State, and even yet are found many who cannot believe that there will really be | competition in the field. | Our own capitalists have been afraid, and outside capital would not come be- cause it has been paid to keep away. The | representative of the English stockholders | reported to his people: *‘No less than 277 | companies have been incorporated at dif- | ferent times to build railroads in Cali- | fornia, none of which undertakings have icome to maturity in consequence of the | enterprise of the promoters of the South- ern Pacific.” And the president of the Southern Pacific takes occasion to quote | this in his last annual report. | Viewing these facts as the people have N N N N \ N W } W. B. STOREY JR. [Drawn from a photograph by a “Call” artist.) can be donein this line. The quality of fruit produced by them and the prices re- alized sre an indication of what can be re- lied upon with proper conditions and proper care. Another fruit from which great results can with the utmost reason be expected in | the San Joaguin Valley is the olive. ‘Wherever it has been tried success has at- tended the exveriment. A noteworthy fact, and one that points to this part of the State as certain in time to become promi- nent as a producer of olives and olive oil, is the assurance that in this valley the olive tree is absolutely and entirely free from the attacks of what has proved so tions nearer the coast—the black scale. This insect pest appears to havea pe- culiar affinity for the olive, and wherever 1 the climate is moist and cool there it’ In the bot interior valleys, how- | tarives. ever, it cannot live, and trees infected therewith which are taken to tue interior and planted are soon entirely rid of the pest without other aid than natural causes. | There is a rapidly growing demand for | both olives and olive oil in this country, and at present the supply is far from ade- quate. The prices paid for the fresh fruit are so high as to insure a most satisfac- tory return to the grower, while the trees in this valley mature rapidly and givea | satisfactory return at an early date. It! must not be supposed, however, that the | entire valley is adapted to the olive any more than it is to the orange. Itisalong | the edge of the valley and in the lower | foothills that locations are found where these fruits will thrive, and of such loca- | There is just one more prominent fea- ture of horticulture in the San Joaquin Valley which is worthy of note, and that | is the production of apples in the moun- While in | other respects I have been careful to say | that this part of the State does not arro- | gate to itself superiority, in this one detail | an exception will be made. The apples raised in the mountain portions of the San | Joaquin Valley counties of Fresno, Tulare | and Kern are without a superior in the | world, and if they have an equal it is not apparent in the markets of this State. They are as nearly absolutely perfect as {ruit can be. In color, size, flavor, texture | and absolute freedom from insect enemies or distigurement they stand supreme. They are impossible of excelment. At present the production is no more than sufficient to supply the home demand, the | fruit selling readily in the local market | at high prices. In the near future, how- | ever, there is bound to be a stimulus given to the planting of apple orchards in the localities mentioned, and then this will assuredly become the great ‘‘apple belt’”” of California. Do, F Wk, | | great a drawback to this industry in loca- i done, is it any wonder that many are skeptical about the success of the Valley road? Itisto try to show what has been | done, what is being done and what will be done, with the idea of convincing the peo- | ple of this State that the Valley road must be a success, that this article is written. This latest movement to provide a true | competitor to the great Southern Pacific has been organized for ten months, and in | that time much'has been accomplished, | and the Southern Pacific people, when spoken to on the subject, no longer say with dubious shake of the head, “The road is not buiit yet.”” In place of this is heard, ‘I suppose it will go through, but it cannot pay.”’ That the Southern Pacific should recog- nize that much is something. Next, the money has been raised for the actual construction of over 100 miles of road, and raised in such a way that the Soathern Pacific cannot get control. Ordi- | narily, railroads are projected, bonds is- | sued and the road built on the proceeds of the bonds. Part of the money raised must go in various ways to pay for floating the bonds, and only a small fraction of the money paid in really goes into the rail- road. This has been the great stumbling | block to all the roads started in California. }Tne road counld not pay interest on the | bonds during the first few vears of its ex- istence, the bondholders have had to take the road and they in turn have been glad to give it into the keeping of the Southern Pacific on condition that their interest would be paid, and in this way the new rival of the Southern Pacific has becomean additional member of that system. In no such way as this can the Valley | road be absorbed, because when the road has been built, say to Fresno, it will be in condition to begin earning money. It will not owe one dollar ana the men who sup- plied the money to build it will control it. Even in the face of ruinous cutting of rates on the part of the S outhern Pacific, the Valley road can hold its own because it bas no interest to pay, but only running expenses in order to keep out of its enemy’s lands, while the greater corpo- ration must not only pay running ex- penses, but must pay the interest on its bonds and on the bonds issued for many a mile of desert. T herefore it is ptain that the money raised for the Valley road has been raised in the best way possible by stock subscriptions. Of the money subscribed nearly one-third has been paid into the treasury and a fourth installment is now being promptly paid up. There is therefore no fear but that the financial part of the Valley road is all right. The question may be asked: ‘What has been accomplished with this money, and how has it been spent? First, rails enough have been purchased and paid for to lay the track from Stockton to Fresno. Part of this rail is now here and the track already laid, and all of the balance is on the water and daily drawing nearer. It will not arrive too soon. Next, ties have begn purchased, and there are on hand in tke city of Stockton enough ties to lay forty miles of track in addition to the twenty-five miles already laid. Loco- motives have been ordered and are now here working daily in the further construc- tion of the road. Cars, built in California manufactories, are taking material to the front. All kinds and classes of material have been gathered together from all parts of this great country, and these a1e to be used in the construction and equipment of the Valley road. Next, surveys have been made for the entire length of the San Joayuin Valley, explorations and examinations of rivers and study of grades, trial lines have been run everywhere searching for the proper combination that will injure the individual property issues least, will give reasonable cost of construction, that will be economi- cal to run trains over, and, finally, that will most benefit the entire valley. This information has been obtained, the various claims and needs taken into ac- count and a route determined on through- out the entire length of the valley. The final survey has been made and the center line of the road mapped out for over 250 miles. The work involved in this is great, although the popular idea of the San Joaquin Valley is that it is one level plain with little or no work to prepare a road- bed, and that all that is necessary to build a railroad through it is to lay down the rails. In place of such an easy and com- fortable way to build, there exists a slightly rolling country that is level enough for a wagon road, but reqaires much study fora railroad, owing to the necessity of avoiding grades. Then there are mighty rivers to cross, some of them with bottom lands on each sides for a mile in width, and these rivers are sunk in all cases far below the "general level of the plain. At these rivers narrow places must be sought, borings made and the nature of foundations for bridges determined, depths of water found, bridges designed, material ordered and brought from ali the four corners of the country and put together in the form of long, high bridges and viaducts, Thereare no fewer than five of these rivers to cross in this way between Stockton and Fresno. All these rivers have been studied in this manner, and gome of the bridges are now being constructed in Stockton. So rapidly has this part of the work been pushed that there is now timber being framed into bridges that was waving in the forests of Puget Sound when the Valley road was started. The surveys have determined the different owners of land that the line will cross, and all the owners along the line from Stockton to Bakersfield are now | known by name, and the exact position of the line across the land of each individual owner. Following close on the surveys have been the right of way matters, and although in the lower part of the valley this could not be undertaken, owing to the non-completion of the surveys, yet there is now forty miles of continuous right of way in the possession of the company, and earnest men are at work all down the valley getting the necessary rights of way and station grounds from the end of this forty miles to the city of Bakersfield. and as soon as this is obtained work will be begun in several places at once. This part of the work has been undertaken with a determination that works wonders, and favorable reports are coming in from all along the line. In the face of these facts, can any one doubt that the Valley road has come to stay? But this is not all. Active construction has begun. Nearly thirty miles of road has been graded, trestles and bridges built, and there are now lawd twenty-five ‘miles of continuouns main line, besides two miles of sidings, and large areas have been fllled in for yards in the city of Stockton, and this Work is still going on. The portions already filled in are now piled high with ties from Mendocino, with piles from Soncma, with timber from Poget Sound. Barges are daily discharg- ing cargoes, and busy men are building these mountains of material higher and higher, while other busy men are tearing them down and loading them on the cars of the Valley road. Puffing locomotives are switching in and out, and finally o off toward the south, and the track con- tinues to extend itself toward the great waiting valley, and bevond the end of the wrack are horses, and men, and wagons, and machines, and engines, throwing up embankments, leveling down hills, build- ing bridges, cutting, leveling and filling. In the face of these facts can any one still doubt? Ore that was on the Atlantic coastwhen | the road was organized has been rolled into steel raii, the rail shipped over the sea for thousands of miles, and is to-day carrying the locomotives and cars of the Valley road southward, toward the south- ern terminus. Ties and timber that were growing trees last February are now part of the Valley road. Locomotives that were not in existence when Ciaus Spreck- els came to the rescue of the State, ten short months ago, are now daily making runs of over 400 miles on the tracks of the Valley road, and cars that were made by California mechanics are carrying ma- terial to the front to assist in the good work. Will the Valley road be a success? It is a success. And though much has been accom- plished much remains to be done. The western terminus must be San Francisco. Stockton was selected as a point to begin work, because a railroad into the valley from that point, working in conjunction with the present steamship lines, would give the quickest relief by affording true competition. Hence, while work is being rapidly pushed from Stockton southward much work has to be done between this City and Stockton. The surveys have yet to be made, estimates calculated, a ter- minus decided on and arrangements made for building. But this will follow in due time, ard when finally the Valley road stretches from Ban Francisco to Bakers- field then will California’s emancipation be complete. The Valley road was un- dertaken in the darkest hour ever known in the State and was the first glimmer of light of approaching dawn, Placed in the hands of earnest men who have made a success of all their previous ventures it cannot fail. The directors have gone to work with a will, have carefully and thoughtfully met every problem that has thus far arisen and are giving the Val- ley road their best efforts. They have thus been enabled to avoid the rocks on which other projects have been wrecked, and by laying aside all personal interests they have been enabled to build for the success of the Valley road first and then for the building up of this great State. With the Valley road a success California may un- dertake anything, and one of the greatest results of the building of this railroad will come in the confidence she will have to undertake other great enterprises, and thus will come the placing of the State where she belongs—as the Queen among States. FOR HOME LABOR. Protection in Its Scientific As- pect—Its Relation to American = Industry and the Workingmen of the United States. Written for THE CALL By PROF. E. A. ROSS. Chair of Economics Stanford University. ‘With the rapid advance of America to the front rank of manufacturing nations it becomes increasingly necessary to re- view the motives which lead us to keep up our protective system, and to see which has been invalidated by the marks of events and which are still sound. It is beyond all question that the infant industry plea and the diversification of in- dustries argument have no longer the force they once had. And it is clear that more and more protection is being de- fended as a device to shield the traditional American wage against the depressing competition of low-paid foreign labor. That this is at present the chief prop of the system is significant from the fact that it frankly rests the case on the effect of pro- tection, on the distribution of wealth. The older arguments looked to the pro- duction of wealth, asserting that the power to produce wealth would be increased if industries were diversified and our re- sources developed. Protection was thus the path to National prosperity, but now stress is iaid on the sharing of the National product among the contributing classes, and, it is asserted, not so much that pro- tection makes more wealth, but that it causes more of it to fall into the bands of the workingman. It is, therefore, by its bearing on the partition of product be- tween classes, that we shall test it in this paper. Obviously we can help 2 man econom- ically only by making the proceeds of his labor go farther toward satisfying his wants. This we can do by raising the price of what he has to sell or lowering the price of what he has to buy, or both. But he must take care that the help we give is the wagas of the American bricklayer, but also foreign physicians, clergymen, law- yers, merchants, teachers, mayors, au tors and 2csessors to lower by their com- petition the cost of medical attendance, church support, legal services, mercantile vprofits, public instruction, and to lessen the burden of taxation by cuttingdown the salaries of public officers, our bricklayer might be quite as well off as before. In other words, if every American who receives an income for his services were equally exposed to foreign competition no one class would have cause to complain. But every one knows that Europe does not send us, in due proportion, represen- tatives of all grades of her population. It does not require statistics to show that it is the wage-earner, not the salary-getter, who is hurt by free immigration; that the brunt of foreign competition falis in fact mainly upon operatives, artisans and me- chanics, the very classes we are burning to protect. OQur protective system therefore is a humbug, in that it fails to do the very thing that it was made to do, viz.: protect the American workingman. Though eaten up with zeal for the interests of la- bor our legisiators keep free-trade prices for what the workingman has to sell and protective prices for what he has to buy. Pretending concern for his welfare, they neglect the most simple and obvious means of helping him, in order to go off and help somebody else who doesn’t need aid. Strange that a system kept up for the sole benetit of American labor should enhance tie price of almost evervthing except the one commodity the workingman has to sell! Protection is therefore a swindle until the foreign pauper is kept out by as high a barrier as we build to keep out the pauper-made goods. But the question now arises: Suppose we restrict immigration as well as importation—will such 2 system benefit American labor? In the light of recent economic thinking, it does not seem difficult to show that such a system is needed, in order to preserve the equilibrium of our society. s At present there is every prospect that China, under the tutelage of Japan, is about to experience a great burstof in- dustrial development, that will bring her, in respect to the use of machinery, factory organization and technical methods, along- side of civilized nations. In view of this, which would be the better for us—free en- into other departments of industry, bring- ing with them overcrowding, decline of wages and lowering of the standard of de- cency snd comfort. For every 165 thus displaced in the cotton industry would be displaced one superintendent or manager, who would compete with and thus depress : somewhat the income of the professional and official classes. For evefy 125 men released from the iron and steel industry one new competitor wouid appear in the better-paid kinds of work. But can we imagine for a moment that one new com- petitor in the higher occupations could cause anything like the depressing effect that would foliow the irruption of the 165 or the 125 into the market for manual labor? Exposure, therefore, to the competition of Chinese cotton, silk, matches or pottery would bring upon the American operative, mechanic or laborer, whether in these branches or in other branches, an appall- ing pressure, tending to reduce his income, and consequently his style of living, to the level of the corresponding class in China. The higher grades of American skill, talent and training, on the other hand, would not be exposed to the competition of corre- sponding classes in China, nor would they suffer a perceptible injury from the slight overflow into their ranks from the ruined branches of manufacture. Their incomes, therefore, would be unshrunken, while they would be able to buy their cotton and silks and crockery at Chinese rather than American prices. I conclude, therefore, that the best paid wage of labor in the United States, as well as the holders of land or other natural re- sources and monopolies, enjoy a natural protection to the value of what they sell, and consequently to their income, far more effective than any protection granted by government. Consequently free trade does not disturb their incomes, while it enables them to acquire the products and services of their worse-paid fellow-citizens at a lower price than could prevail if to the natural protection enjoyed by some classes were added artificial protection safeguarding the other classes. On the other hand, the common grades of labor, if exposed to the competition of cheap- labor countries, will have their earning power reduced till they receive no more per unit of work performed than does the corresponding class in foreign countries. At the same time they must pay to abil- ity and talent the same price as before for itsservices. The former class, then will be benefited without an appreciable injury, while the latter class will be injured with- out any corresponding benefit. This means that the classes will lie farther apart on the economic scale than they did before the era of foreign competition. The well- to-do will be better off and the ill-to-do will be worse off. It will be the same as if a series of wedges were inserted between the classes of society, forcing them further apart, in respect to income and standard of living. Free trade with a cheap labor country increases the 1nequnlity of rewards and widens the gap (that separates each class from the one next below or above it. This accentuation of differences not only checks the general upward movement of a whole people, but reduces social inter- course and democratic feeling and fosters caste spirit. If my reasoning be sound this train of consequences would follow free trade, not with China alone, but with any country where the manual laboring class receives a less effictency wage and hence occupies a lower plane of life than does the manual laboring class here. It seems to me, there- fore, that the only way in which a highly developed people can move upward among the scale of civilization in a compact bedy, PROFESSOR E. A. ROSS. |Drawn from a photograph by a “Call” artist.] not offset by the hurt we inflict in another | trance of Chinamen and Chinese goods, or way. If we double a man’s wages, but in so doing we also double the price of what he buys, we do not aid him. Likewise if the cheapening of the goods he buys must be purchased by cutting his income in an equal degree, we cannot pose as his bene- factors. What the American workingman has to sell is not shoes or chintz, or steel rails he helps te make, but bis labor. There is no use in lifting the price of these products, excepb as a means to eventually lifting the price of his labor. The chintz and shoes are not the property of the workingman, but of his employer, and to raise their price, by artificial means, is primarily to beneiit the manufacturer by increasing his receipts. To raise the prico of commodi- ties, therefore, as an earnest of our desire to help the workingman is honest only in casa the benefit does not stop with his em- ployer, but is passed on to the working- man in the form of higher wages. More- over, about all of this benefit must be passed on if we are going to help him. For to raise the price of cloth and shoes and hardware, is to raise the price of some of the things the workingman buys. We cannot benefit him, then, unless we atone for this loss in certain directions by a more than proportionate increase in his wages. The workingman has his labor to sell and we set about to belp him by raising the price of what the manufacturing em- ployer has to sell. Very good, certainly, but it is fair to ask if there is no more di- rect way of helping the American laborer. In sending him a benefit by an indirect route there 1s always danger that part of it may leak out on the way and line the pockets of other classes. If raising the price of products by restricting the in- bringing of foreign goods is a good way to benefit the American wage-earner, cer- tainly a much surer way lies open to us by raising the price of labor directly by re- stricting the incoming of foreign laborers. It is strange that we should have over- looked so simple a device of keeping up the price of that article which the working- man has to sell, viz.: his labor. It is true we have an alien contract labor law that prohibits the in-bringing of foreign labor under contract, but there is abso- lutely nothing to keep the Old World laborers from walking across the gang- plank at tbe rate of a million a year. And no doubt if foreign-maae crockery and tin- ware and calico had legs with which to walk themselves into this country we should find them quite as depressing to home-made goods as the goods brought in by an importer, and should tax them quite as heavily. It is not simply the presence of' the foreigner that hurts American labor. If the competition of immigrants were of such a character as to lower the price, not only of what the workingman has to sell, but also of what he has to buy, it might be all one to bim how many pourin annually from overcrowded Europe. If there came in, not only outland bricklayers, to lower a policy of restriction ? As regards the entrance of Chinamen I have already said enough to show that it would increase rather than diminish the inequalities of income. It would. benefit a college professor to have free immigra- tion of Chinese gardeners, fruit-pickers, canners, cooks and laundrymen, because he would pay less for vegetables, fruit, canned goods, washing and kitchen ser- vice. On the other hand, his income would be in no wise lessened, for the rea- son that Chinese college professors do not come over here, and if they did they would not be able to enter his profession. In the same way it would benefit law- yers, physicians, teachers, clergymen, newspaper men, architects, engineers, artists, actors, nurses, machinists, mer- chants and business men generally, as well as city, county, State and Federal of- ficials and civil servants, In other words, the best-paid classes could make their money go farther without Laving to atone for it by reduction of income. This would also hold true of those whose income is derived from interest, dividends, rents and investment generally. But how would free immigration present itself to the American laundryman, cook, ditcher, fruit-picker, farm laborer or sec- tion-hand? These would find their in- come shrunk under the competition of Chinese laborers, while they would be benefited in only a portion of their outlay, and that a very small portion. Their wages might be cut into, while they might save one-tenth in expenditure. Not only would those classes of workingmen be in- jured who are exposed to direct competi- tion of Chinese, but men in other occupa- tions of the same industrial grade would lose. Teamsters, draymen, stevedores, streetcar drivers, porters, sailors, stable- men and others might find their wages re- duced or their jobs taken away by the competition of displaced white laundry- men, cooks and gardeners. So the depres- sion would be propagated in every direc- tion throughout the lower industrial stratum. 8o much for the free entrance of Chinese emigrants. But if we allow the free im- portation of Chinese goods we have the same lopsided effect. The bringing in of cheap Chinese' sermons, prescriptions or legal opinions will not harm the American preacher, doctor or lawyer. Free trade with China will not alarm the newspaper man for the price of his newspaper, the professor for the value of his lectures, the architect for the worth of his plans. Chinese building lots will not swamp the American landlord, nor will our lumber kings, borax kings or oil kings lose sleep for fear of pauper-made lumber or borax or oil. On the other hand our markets would be flooded with cotton and silk goods, iron and steel products and perhaps glass and pottery. These would displace the home products till the labor costin America sank nearly to labor cost in China. Most or all of the wage-earners in these branches of manufacture would migrate realizing the ideal of democratic progress, is by a policy of restriction, applying not only to the entrance of goods, but also to the entrance of men. The system we now have availed only so long as cost of trans- portation was high and the inclination to travel slight. Butwith the cheap steerage passage of to-day and with reailroad and steamship agents all over Europe decoying their laboring classes to this country, our workingmen are already beginning to find out hew little a mere tariff can do to keep up their wages. If the American must accept this free trade in men, free trade in goods will bea boon to him, as it would enable him to buy ina cheap market, as he must now sell in a cheap market. 20 Brer PAINTED THE BRONCHO. An amusing incident is reported from one of the military posts in the far West, the chief actors in which were a China- man, several cowboys, Indians and a sol- dier or two. The post was quite close to the headquarters of the Indian agent, who ranked as major, and as the officers of the regiment and the officials of the agency were friendly, interchanges of hospitality were frequent, not only among the mas- ters but also among the men. The regi- ment possessed a heathen Chinee cook, who was much given to visiting a brother Celestial who superintended the culinary arrangements of the agent, and one night the dwellers at the agency were mightily surprised to see Wun Lung come canter- ing over from the post to pay his regular weekly visit to Gee Wo. The sight of a Chinaman on ponyback wasso rare as to attract much attention, and the fact that the pony in question was a little, milk-white cayuse caused the devil to en- ter into an Irishman who put in his time serving the agent and playing practical jokes. Soon the cayuse was safely housed and within a very few moments afier the gentlemen from the flowery kingdom were seeking the golden sunlight of the pipe- dream. Then was Pat’s time, and taking a pot of black paint he proceeded to invest the pony with a series of stripes which would have made the best-bred zebra in South Africa turn green with envy. In the meantime Pat, taking advantage of a superstition existing among the Indians, had told them that the striped pony had come to them at last, and was, in fact, in the stable at that very moment. The chief, a dozen bucks and twice as many squaws at once set out for the agency stable and appeared on the scene just as the China- man was standing at the stable door and wondering whether he wasasleep or awake. With much majesty the chief entered the stable and without more words untiedthe striped pony and essayed to lead him away to the sacrifice. With ayellthatdiscounted anythihg every credited in opera,song,story or reality, and quickly brought his coun« tryman to his aid, the heathen Chines sailed into the equally heathen Indian chief, and in a trice the two were doubled up together, the liberated pony making the best of his way homeward with his head between his heels to escape the dozen or so of ropes that were cast at his retreat- ing form. The two wearers of the pigtail were getting the worst of it very decidedly when Pat appeared on the scene, and by a good deal of persuasion, coupled with the exercise of sore bodily strength, succeeded in separating the combatants. —_————————— Stump speakar—I say, we've got to have reform in our politics. It’s in the air. Skeptical auditor—'Bout time it struck the earth, isn’t it?—Roxbury Gazette.