Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-15
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 15, 1890.
The Tariff ON Fruits.

w H0n Mr. O6rl1Hl0 WTOI0 his laMOu5
article on the tariff question he took up
the strongest line of argument there is
against the extreme position OF the Re-
publican party. He treated the ques-
tion almost entirely from the point of
view of the farmer. 1t is from that point
that heiniquity of the war tariff is fully
realized to the mind. There is hardly
thing the farmer uses on the farm that
does not pay an enormous tax, which is
always added to its cost before it reaches
his hand. The boards he puts in his
fences and the nails that held them, the
plow that turns the sod, the wagon that
hauls his produce, the clothes ne wears,
the salt he puts in his food and the fork
he eats it with are all protected by a
heavy duty. But when the farmer
comes to sell anything, he finds it is q
clear case of all the world against him.
He has to 60 into the markets OF the
world and find sale for his products in
com petition with all the pauper labor of
the world. He has 70 meet the COM
Position of the serf labor of Russia, and
that of the ryot labor of India. He
has no protection excepting in the case
of afew articles produced from the earth.
Sugar and fruits come near summing up
the whole list. 1t would seem as if the
rapac;ty of the manufacturers of the
East who own and control the party in
power would let the farmers have this
small measure of protection, and it would
seem as if the love of the Republican
party for power would prevent disturbing
the duties on sugar or fruit. The
cry of the party IS that tariff reduces
the.cost of any article by stimulating its
production at home, and then with a
blind inconsistence the same people
turn around and clamor for the abolition
of the duties on fruit, for the reason that
these duties increase the cost to the
consumers, to the detriment of the peo-
ple's health.
Take the case OF this State. With pro-
lection we can supply the Union with all
the fruit it needs, and in time with
all its sugar. There is now fair start
made'in the development Of the fruit in
dustry of the Stste, and there are very
active movements on foot to begin the
development of the beet sugar industry
in California. The duty on both sugar
and fruits ought, by all means, to be let
alone.
simultaneously with this proposition
to take the duty OF of fruit comes one to
increase the duty on tin plate, thus en-
hancing the cost OF cans to the fruit
packer Every thing in the way of manufac.
lures to the very end of the chapter is to
be protected and the farmer is to bleed
through the nose for the manufacturers
benefit, and everything that grows out of
the ground is to enter the markets cf the
world and compete with serf, ryot and
pauper labor as bsstit can.
The ordinary farmers in the swamps of
the West are slow people, who read
but little. So they are in the back
country of New York. 1t requires
some years to get a new idea through
their heads. Not 80 the intelligent
fruit-growers of California. They do
read and think, and if this infatuation
takes possession of the Republican party,
it will lose that party the State of Cali
fornia beyond all possibility to get it
back again.