The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-04-26

A strange remark is attributed to ex-
Senator Buck, manager of the California
Fruit Union. His opinion is that the
demand fox fruit in the East this year will
not be increased by the Worlds Fair and
that Chicago itself viii take less. But he
goes on to say: Il told Mr.. Ripley, our
Boston agent, that | would like TO make a
contract with him To take the same amount
of fruit he did last season and have him agree
TO pay ME Tor this seasons output only %
per cent of what the net profits were last
season." Making all allowances for getting
the fruit to market, what We're the net
profits there last season? Why Chicago
should consume less fruit is not apparent.
Cholera is not here. 1t may not come at
all. If it does come it eau be stopped. At
present there is no cholera scare, not even
IN Europe. Fruit is not quite a luxury in
the East or anywhere in tie United States.
II is food almost as necessary as bread or
meat. Why should the demand fall. off for
good fruit such as California can supply?
San Francisco has cinnabar excitement
on a cable-ear route and proprie tors Of lots
will be more intent upon boring out their
foundations than erecting improvements If
there are full pockets beneath. A similar
turn Of fortune seems to have befallen
Seattle. There a sewer tunnel was being
DuIeu anu one VI inc NOl hAlEH SLIuCk VITAL
is supposed To be rich silver ore. A blast
fetched away a ton of lBtent wealth.
Promptly the woTKmen stopped sewering
and flied mining claims. This is an ncOn-
venient arrangement OF the engineers
plans but should the ore be sufficiently
promising that functiOnary, and the con-
tractors and Supervisors as well, may take
4 hand in fling claims also and drift the
sewer in another direction. We cannot
have our streets paved with gold, but the
tafa rtl 5a IN tl,a,,
concreted with the much-agitated white
metal
The New York mob cheered young Har-
ris, the medical student who murdered his
wife. lie was the hero of the moment as
ne marched away from court. with the SEN
tence pronounced and extinction by cleo
tricity imminent. 1t seems to be chiefly the
murderer who receives sympathy, rarely
the murdered victim, possibly on the ground
that the latter Is past sympathy. Governor
Flower has resolved to commute Harris
sentence, The public may be curious to
know his reasons, unless they are based
upon the summary assumption that it Is
barbarous to execute a criminal. COmmu-
tation Of sentence does not remove the
stigma OF conviction, and there does not
appear TO be much room for doubt in Harris
case. This year the New York Tribune
showed that the proportion of legal eXecu-
tons to murders in the United States is
about l TO go. The figures may not be
accurate, but the disparity is great and hor-
rible.
Captain Merry casts a little light on the
aniecedents Of G. C. Knight, who raised a
small storm the other day at the meeting of
the Nicaragua Canal Company. He was
formerly in the employment of the COM
pany, on the appointment of President Mil
Ter, but was discharged. As is to be
expected, the gratitude of an ousted en-
ploye IS below zero. aud Mr.. Knight has
shown q prediction for abuse of the
company since that period. Captain Merry
is not aware how influential Mr.. Knight is
in England. Probably the English them
selves are in the same blissful ignorance.
Be that as it may, the captain is right in
maintaining that the canal should remain an
American enterprise. We can find the cap
ital without foreign assistance, and the
management is too important to trust in
other hands. DiScredltiug statements
about the work should be received with
lncreduiity, for these can always be manu-
featured by enemies.
The farmer is to have experience of the
benefits of a harrow trust, which may not
improve the yield of wheat, but is intended
to raise the profits on the manufacture of
these indispensable grubbing implements.
1t might be c0njectured that the agriculturist
is narrowed enough already, but he is
patient and long suffering, and unfOrtu-
natelv has to submit to much that grieves
him. Were there syndicates TO regulate the
prices of all the machinery he uses the
farmer might as well leave his land to the
grasshOppers and gopheTs, but it may be
predicted that he Will still be able to piOw
his way.
Another Antipodean bank suspension is
announced-that OF the London Chartered
Bank of Australia. One financial nstitu-
ton pulls another down, and doubtless
there are more falls to come. The assets of
these banks have not been tempered with
and the management is not aspersed. 1t is
simply misfortune through too much solidity
in uuproductiVe and non-realiZable land in
vestments When cash is wanted acres are
cumbersome, and runs on banks thus en-
barrassed soon empty the safe.
1t is calculated that /, 700. 600 square miles
of the earth are without human inhabitants
or are ownerless, and that 10000 miles
are destitute Of settled government, the in
ference being that the rest has it. The re-
naming 100000 square miles are in the
possession Of definite states, and IS of
these lay claim to 81 per cent of that area.
Because possession is thus held OF most OF
the earth in definite shape. it does not
follow that there is oYercrowdiug, unless il
be In Europe, and that is not proved except
IN the case OF Belgium and Great Britain.
Spain. IL seems, is so far from having too
large population that in DespOblado
Province 1000 square miles, owing to want
Of irrigation, are practically uninhabited.
The engineer could make another country
of Spain. but somehow all tends to go back
ward. Statislicians endeavor to make this
generation SILVER at the thought that there
will be no room for mans foot on the earth
two centuries hence. and very little food or
coal or wood, but the evil day is too far off
TO arouse our alarms.