The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 19, 1897, Page 7

-1 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1897. MANUFACGURES. - By JAMES W. KERR, President Manufacturers’ Association. HEN the year is fading into the past and the ming of a new year—and perhaps a new era wning upon us, it seems natural for all n to make a careful survey of the sphere of tion in which the decree of Providence, per- 1l effort or the favor of their fellow-men has ire in store for us? What will the ? Were the answer to this question to n the opportunities placed within the people I wouid not hesitate to predict a series rs for the manufacturing and producing te. There is great danger, however, wn of returning prosperity ourpeopie, sons of the past, forgetting that it is not s that make & it people, but the use they may lapse once more into that been the bane of California. rned in the past years that will the prosperity now dawning upon that natural advantages of il, are not the only im- ate. We have iearned so parcel out ritory tes that they acquire wealth and of the Government itself, whilé of a State are crushed and d that merchants and dealers may inst the products of the State until home market is checked and the ils upon themselv By CHARLES A. WETMORE, Viticulturist. S THE outlook of the wine industry in California be- comes more business-like, more in conformity with the laws of normal production and trade, the pros- pects of improved conditions for all concerned are really brightening. Reviewing the events of the last few years we find that the grape-growers and winemakers have been trying to play at the game of medieval feudalism in the hopes of escaping from the struggles of modern competitive life. ‘When the viticultural industry first listened to the false | promise of the trust. as to a voice leading it from danger to | safety, I believe I was the only one to publicly resist the | movement and to predict disaster. Prophets' of evil are never popular, and I, who had been a close adviser so long | as a spirit of freedom and progress prevailed, was pushed ide, as 1 deserved to be. It little comfort, after all, to v, “I told you so.” That the e industry is back again vhere it was when it commenced to improve its condition is, at least, a source of congratulation. The recent action of the assembled winemakers, their | declaration of independence in a simple resolution, has been met with grave e ions of misapprehension on the part of the commercial pessimist. I hear on all sides at the date of this writing predictions of evil to the producers who dare n their doors to the world’s markets. It would be tiresome at Christmastide to enter into dry deta ‘We have a bounteous vintage. Shall we be sorry for plenty? We had a shortage of our wants in 1896, and, as is usual nowadays, we are apt to predict prosperity from ortune and poverty from providential plenty. There was a prediction of prosperity when our vintages were for 'ned that the products of our vineyards, our ns may be so imitated and sup- cottonseed oils and glucose com- industries would become extinct t laws properly enforced. We have 1 evils which are threatening our prosperity rthed during the investigations > dull times. At the p 1t time earnest one of them, some as members of ome on Boards of Health or in other puDIic pe o Let the general public kebp these @vis constantly fo view aud give to their fizhting furce the liberal wid and support which the impurtapc€ of the situation demands Do this, and, under thegenlyal conditions now prevailing 1 can, w thout hesitajron p;fiv t a(u.x#:;e’rum?rlluam Tuture for oup€Itye Stagt wdme Bf my Ceaders may gon. sidsr that ufy predictiy ‘tfll_lé'nmea foP—~the [cpming year is mpanied Uy €Iy 3ar 1), buvihe e purpdee’ to/luiltfny One to gleep must stard It is not , byt a vig. with(talse as of ergy but are ‘O people do ot orgfs wwzkaniuga/Th: he power of er communt- adacightlinthat fixe culties which uire sothiyg,petio) re pot xa\;mn‘fg in yed effort whick dpre surtound us to, yizaal bdtile with themitill § characteri: appreciat ~OwgEL for Y g .v’,&rx.“.\ s ferff 1 oypss attSrfion be tupn®d i UgFdin e guaidedgty Propgrfay s u grs Leen tahen ip§sOiving pe€daition o) § rnayefmgntionsd g GlaeT {one Uf ‘the thygdteafir® onfls tend Few gersons apineg auestion, ZWhen we S the genera theé silver and the leas realize that matters of great value are being discussed. [ut have they ever counsiderea that the two products, za'ttor and cheese, vxceed In salue by sumething ke €<ty ions ef dollars the entireoutput of all the gold su\-\-\ and iron mines of these United States? To tampe with tuch interests is a serious matter, The State of Ohio has taken a leading part in combat- ing evils of this character. After an investigation extend- over three years it was reported that the loss to that te by the supplanting of its products by adulterated ons amounted to seventy-eight million dollars per prodyéis ave ty/con- m st im annum ifornia is by nature a food-producing State. experience of other communities has shown the which can be inflicted by the traffic in question. Experi- ence has also shown that the imitation article will in- variably drive out the genuine; that the honest dealer must go down before his dishonest competitor unless a wise and vigorous protection be extended. Of the various evils which I have mentioned there is neone, perhaps, more necessary to be borne in mind than the importation and sale of convict-made goods. Prison fac- tories have assumed large proportions in various States of our Union. There is hardly an article required by man which is not produced in these penal institutions. Such is the commercial spirit of our people that when once such a policy is allowed to prevail in our prisons it speedily over- shadows every other consideratio there follows a continued expansion along commerc The annual value of the one item of boots and shoes made in these prisons is about $12,000,000. The products of the New York prisons exceeded $7,000,000. This State of New York made most extensive experiments in this direction; but the re- sults were found so disastrous to free labor institutions that convict work was stopped with the beginning of the present year. % The greatest danger to California from this source lies in the fact that the continuous agitation against prison products now going on in the East and elsewhere inclines these people to export their goods, with the view of reliev- ing the situation at home. Many of them find California a vary convenient market, so while we are raising funds to aid the unemployed the boots and shoes and furniture from the prisous of Massachusetts and Illinois are being solq in our stores and the stoves and ranges from the convicts of Oregon are warming our homes. During the nt year the British Government has {icen impelled to serve notice on the merchants of this coun. y that no goods made by convict labor will be Dermitteq enter the United Kingdom. If wise old England, ip. Nenched as her manufacturers are witi all the protection which years of experience, abundant capital and cheap labor can afford, is under the necessity of making such 5 declaration, howcan the struggling industriesof this Young State hope to stand against such competition? I have endeavored in this article to direct attention to what in my judgment are some of the obstacles in our paqy, 1 of progress. I believe the time is past when we should seek to fy ourselves with pleasing congratulations, ‘that the true path to an abiding prosperity ljog <ing out and making known who and what our enemies are and in battling with these enemies like men The losses z P thig Dublic ')Mg gold, | mines of this great country they | two years far short of the market demand. One year ago | we were selling new average, plain wines, naked of cooper- | age, in the country cellars, at-17 and 18 cents per gallon, | until the immediate necessities of the syndicate trust were | satisfied. There was a short vintage, and it was reasonable | to gamble according to commercial morality that prices | would advance to those who held for the coming year, now v past. But the trust idea was in the vineyard. The | winemakers, in organized company, thinking they could | serve two masters—the people’s interest and the trust— | kept alive their ambiguous policy, and while they tried to deal with the trust according to the standard rule of old- | fashioned trade—the law of supply and demand—advancing | the price of a scarce commodity to 20 cents, they held their Produvers until 100 late,away arm a Iree market. It the society of winemakers, represepfin3\ the mafor part of our production, hgd ¢fénfined t! Ives to the legitimate purposes which they'preferred\when they pro- fessed when they first organizéd, viz.,, thigsl inferfor material through distillation, t! standard ordinary stocks, the 5 for private trade of of profit and loss on acgpudgof U standards, the trade that ha scarket to-independen{Zbuyer; pooling Tmprovement of funiform kgrvant of prod] of gupply and a2mong buyers 2 the faith of e g 8 il | vived, and 5 histdrv P TAble walagain taught the péople. ns 'el,}\\‘jflch 15T pPXIng, offpred 18 cents jsame a few for wine, pritends thatfincoul @y the = T o months lager: they offiTed motfe-tuan Wwines were 03 :'L?(")i&k'a .}L‘*g:? wort] hex);gg Jukgling wittrvhlnes “Whswill betieve zk vf")"“"— _{f”f ol _-",fllfi & | th mor& than thé goods were worth2 ~Why the sTour pEopic gndis LLte | vitlerness reeling becaus\ they—weTe prevented from "};‘;:g?l“’}:f/‘“ masrime | ) at 18 cénts what they have since been able b buy. St ol 14T Py S SR LR, X Na~conttnued monopoly wa: 5 <ing granfed thls they punished-the people of the w o= = e makers mehg_little_sy: ~because they had created the situation and:were willing enough to support the mo- nopoly, provided enlv that it would be «ontinuotsly. mure generous than necessity demanded. | The situation of the wine industry is briefly summar- ized. An increased vintage for 1897, with enough to keep commerce alive, and, when short crops succeed, to save it | from having recourse to vile imitations; roughly guessed at | twenty-four million gallons; with ten to eleven million gallons of 1896 and older wines to supply the demand next vear, which is guessed to be eighteen millions. A fair pros- pect of drawing on the 1897 vintage for at least seven or | eight million gallons to supply the deficit for 1898. A prob- | ility of a light vintage in 1898 and a healthy demand for | the 1897 to consume in 1899. | Freedom of trade in California wines to «'1 the world; two-thirds of the vintage in the hands of one set of organ- ized winemakers, whose necessary obligations on account of cost of production are less than those of the syndicate | merchants and independent producers, who were obliged to | pay out in cash for grapes more per ton than their rivals. | If the market is not equal to the supply the associated | winemakers may cut prices for new wines without loss to themselves—the actual farmer being the sufferer as usual; but independent trading will be restored and healthy condi- | ticns may prevail again when normal commercial liberty is | revived. Serious confusicn of ideas is growing out of all this public discussion of the vintage prices of new wines. First, it must be remembered that when it is said that the market price is 12, 15 or 18 cents, as the case may be, reference is made only to new raw material, naked of cooperage, in whole cellar lots, delivered in San Francisco in quantities of from 20,000 to 500,000 gallons, excluding all reserve and superior grades except such as growers are forced to sacrifice to the common pot of “standard” or ordinary dry wines. Such prices do not refer to port, sherry and other sweet wines, which have laws unto | themselves. The Eastern or export market of surplus or- dipary wines is what controls the publicly discussed prices. On this coast, where there is a market of from six to eight million gallons, there is an appreciation for the superior grades of wines, which net the producers from 20 to 50 cents for wholesale lots, and from 50 cents to $1 in small barrel orders, and from $5 to $12 per dozen for fine wines in trade, which means from $1 to 33 and even $4 per gallon. This in- dependent prade in finer growths of Medoc, or Cabernet clarets, Sauternes, Rieslings, etc., is really of commercial importance, and is almost exclusively the business of a special class of merchants, who are not referred to when we speak of wine merchants who control the distribution of the surplus export material. What the wine-makers need now is a public method of popularizing information in Eastern cities, especially in New York, Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia, concern- ing the distinctions of superior wines. This can only be done through wine fairs, sample exhibits and epicurean lit- crature and by public methods free from trade competition, Let me propose to the Wine-Makers’ Corporation, which in- directly controls the reserve stocks of its members, that it should take up the work of popular education where the State Viticultural Commission left it when the Platt's Hall exhibit and cafe were closed. A similar movement shoulq be inangurated in New York. The trade will not be in ad- vance of popular demand, and if the people are to be the factors of demand they must have opportunities for cy). tivating taste. So long as the trust idea prevails and leads, it exerciges a leveling influence and throws the prizes of profit to quan- tity against quality. Free competition tends to give Prom- jses to distinetions of quality and reputation based on Popu- lar appreciation. The trust kills the enthusiasm of the con. who are determined to hand down to their chl_ldreP as a glorious heritage our emancipated State, ¢ noisseur and elevates only the cold-blooded views of the manufacturer on lines of labor-saving machinery and cheap lahor. The trust is the tomb of the artist, oo =~ LUMBER. By GEORGE D. GRAY. ERHAPS there is no better bar- ometer to advise us of prosper- ity or adversity among the mass- es of our people than the lumber trade. When times are brisk, and the people prosperous, when money is plenty and command- ing only a reasonable rate of interest, the lumber trade is active and remu- nerative, but let there come a strin- gency in the money market, a lack of confidence, or a feeling of unrest per- vade the community, and the wood in- terests are the first to feel the depres- sion and the last to recover. The reason of this is easily seen. It is the middle classes, the moderately prosperous portion of our people, in- stead of the wealthy capitalist, on which the lumberman depends for the sale of his product. The millionaire that decides to use his surplus capital, when he makes an investment in real estate seel a downtown location, erects a massive structure of stone, iron and glass, with hardly enough wood in it to make a respectable bon- fire. But it is the man with small means or moderate income that builds up the suburbs of our cities with small comfortable homes or dots the farming countries with houses and barns. It is this class that any fluctuation in the money market most quickly affects. A | shrinkage in trade for the small mer- chant, or a curtailment of expenses by the large commercial houses, that re- duces the salaries, or throws out of employment the clerk, stops all such improvements and therefore affects im- mediately the lumber dealer. There- fore I say that the lumber industry is a very good barometer to indicate whether a financial storm is at hand or has passed. NoWw whnen we consider that thére ara employed in the manufacture of Jams | ber alone in the Pacific Coas ates (California, Oregon and Wi ngton) fot less than 26,000 men, eari ng thejr annual wages about $20, tagmention an ayny nearly,{i €y @s large who a}¢ en;:dég_d ng "‘ ing it this lumber i‘%hn.e Is, ang % at the fifferft poimé r{f when véturthier regdat] th ilieg 5t theeymen makg ad ¥ orgfif {1 Troig 00,000 fers enbuponstheiy daily wages, li anTdEa Ortho ing perity orad point thy= | &y workman to Keepd getler, and the millman ing hypdlhis of acres of vi Mm but stungrs it he ¥ad fol % wable property. L = With su State of @ypression and darkness, A'was_ #ote@ifticult to dis- cover firsCElimmerdf light, as the day | aroséwhichiforetold the light thaC was go follow,(and was the har- bin§er of the dawn ofyprosperity which ll/dd already illumincted the horizon: A spint of confidence has already taken possession of~the whole lumber fraternity, and white ™yices have not materially advanewd. the demand for the commodity Svhich asvays precedes an advance inaalue has come, and all agree that a rea of prosperity is as hand. Nor is this optimistic view based upon theory alone. Figures bear out the statement and a comparison of the following statistics will show that our hopes are well founded. I quote from the record of one department of the lumber trade only, that of redwood, for two reasons: First—It is California that we are particularly interested in and redwood is peculiarly a product of Californla and nowhere else. Second—Because these statistics are reliable, while those of pine or fir and other woods must be more or less esti- mated. I compare the last three months with the corresponding period of last year: Production of Feet. Feet. redwood in— 1896, 1897, September 18,817,274 October . 19,871,705 November Total 60,016,971 This shows an increase of production in the last preceding three months of 23,359,699 feet, being nearly 64 per cent over the corresponding period in 1896. I speak the truth when I say that at this writing there are no pessimists among the lumber dealers. A N EoANY SRR ALIFORNIA is conceded a; fact having been recogniz horse-breeding industry w: THOROUGHBRED HORSES, y HENRY J. CROCKER, Vice-President Pacific Coast Jockey Club. s the natural home of the horse, and that ed by some of our argonaut capitalists, the as at an early stage of our State's develop- ment put on such a basis that it has since become one of California’s great industries. Naturally among such sportsmen and patrons of the horse as Ral- ston, Haggin, Stanford, Cook and Hobart, the standard of the roadster was first raised, and the CLff House has listened to many a tale of a brush on the road and a wager laid for the return to town. It was rare old sport, and fills a page of every history written of Cali- fornia. The thoroughbred for the time has put the light harness horse in the background. His friends, however, are many, and the Pacific Coast Trotting Horse Preeders’ Association has the matter well in hand toward perpetuating the glory of our State in this direction. The trotter is now bred to his highest type in California, and the expense and trouble taken by Governor Stanford in developing his theories have . won for California the greatest and best results. . Hardly a newspaper is issued that does not record the achievement of fast time by the son or daughter of some of the great sires im California and ihe sale of some yearling or so that brings a large price in-the hoges that his chances of ultimate success may be reached through the same breeding. Passing briefly over these classes we come to the draft horse class, and here will be found room for better improvement. The .Norman and Percheron half-breed stock is a familiar sight in the streets of the city, and the Clydesdales, either in pairs or a team of four, hauling large brewery wagons to their destination or doing the heavy work | for some bhig wholesale hardware concern, is a pleasing sight. The organization of the Horse Show Association was for the purpose of showing all these classes of horses and giving premiums, awarded by the most competent judges, for excellence in their various classes and for the advancement of the carriage horse interest. ‘What this association did for the industry is a matter of record, and what it did for the various branches of trade catering to the industry was duly appreciated. However, in these matters of public spirit—as in all things connected with California’s development—there are those who whine and cry and insult the promoters and circulate such base slanders as to drive desire from those who would do good. Hence the passing of the Horse Show. ‘When this class of people can be eliminated from the field, or their own Insignificance drives them from the power of doing harm, the show will be bilitated and the parties interested will again take up the good work. %