Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-07
TUESDAY, JULY Z, 1891.
THE HERALD AT THE BEACH.
JOHN CoMPRADoR MAKES ANOTHER
STRIDE.

JOHN C0MPRADOR MAKES ANOTHER
STRIDE.
The Chinese are spreading out from
the vegetable to the fruit business.
They have now entered the field in COM
petition with white men as purchasers
and packers of fruit crops. No wonder
this fact has struck the white purchasers
and packers with CONSERVATION. As a
rule, whenever the Chinese enter an in
dustrial or business field, they enter to
stay. Not only to stay, but gradually to
edge out the white competitor and ulti-
mately to take entire possession of the
field itself. This was the case in San
Francisco with the cigar and other lines
of business. The Chinese have been in
Quoted into the fruit business by the
white packers themselves. Cheap labor
was the bait the latter bit at. Now that
the Mongolians have mastered the mys-
teries of the business they propose to
take possession of the business itself.
For time the appearance in the
market of John Comprador as fruit
crop purchaser and packer will be bene-
fetal to the horticulturlst. He will
force the white packer to pay higher
prices for his fruit. This process will 60 on
until he will compete the white operator
out OF the market by making more lib
eral offers for fruit than the latter can
affeId to give. This he can do and sue
ceed, because he will be able to econo-
mize in wages, and because the Chinese
have facilities amongst themselves for
putting the principles of cooperative
labor in practice which the whites have
not. He will also start out with the ad-
vantage of the encouragement OF the
fruit grower, for the reason that the lat
ter believes, whether true or false, that
he has been systematically cinched by
the white purchaser and packer. This
belief is not in the least weakened by
the recent combination or trust entered
into by the white packers OF this state,
with few exceptions.
But what will be the upshot Of the
Chinese entering this important field Of
industry? We have said that they have
the knack to take full possession Of
whatever field they enter. Now, should
the Chinese ultimately drive the white
purchasers and packers out, and have
the business in their sole possession,
how would the case stand? 1t would
stand in very unfortunate position for
the fruit growers, who would be at the
mercy of the Chinese. The latter would
dictate prices, and there would be no
remedy. There would be no competi-
ton among themselves, and they would
be in position to drive away any at
tempted competition that might arise
outside of their own people.
This would not come all at once
but it would be an early de-
velopment of the intrusion of the
Mongolians into the purchasing and
packing business. 1t is easy to say that
the fruit growers could also combine and
pack their own products. But in the
meantime, John Comprador would have
established his connections in all the
selling markets, and his goods would
have got into the steady channels OF
business distribution.
We ali know what that means. Farm.
ers have never been very successful in
their efforts to market their own crops.
They have tried it often and sometimes
on very large scale, but
still the middlemen and the business
distributors OF the products have held
their own. We confess that we feel a
sense of danger in this irruption of the
Chinese into the field of fruit packing.
Their patience, their shrewdness. their
tenacity of purpose, but above all their
power to underbid and overbid the white
man and still to sustain themselves, i'm
presses US with the belief that they will
gradually become the sole possessors Of
the purchasing and packing field, and
then they will dominate the producing
interest, and establish just such prices
as they are willing to give the growers
for their fruit crops.