The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-21
NEGLECTED INDUSTRIES.

IHe eueTSleS WHICH are Del1lg ulTeCleu 10
the use of articles of home production have
made good beginning, and that is neces-
sary to all great achievements. Our own
people produce an astonishingly wide
range of articles to which our consumers
give no preference over similar articles pro-
duced in other parts of the world and this
in the face of the fact that the home made
articles are generally better and cheaper
than those produced in distant States and
countries.
But it is equally true that our manufac-
turers are neglecting certain lines of fancy
goods in which the largest profits are made.
This is stated clearly by the San Jose
Herald as follows:
"When the dried apricots and other
fruits of Santa Clara Valley can be sent to
England and made into choice jellies with
attractive labels, shipped back to the
United States and even to California and
sold at fancy prices, there should be no
question about the profitable investment
of capital in manufacturing such things at
home. And this has been done for years
and will doubtless be done again this year.
No wonder that times are said to be hard
when such opportunities of making money
and employing labor are persistently
ignored. Any country would soon be poor
If it shipped all its raw materials to foreign
countries to be manufactured and
then bought them back again. And yet
that is just what we are doing in Santa
Clara Valley all the time. Somebody will
come here some day and show US what we
are losing by this policy. They will take
our splendid fruits and convert them into
essences, iellies and such like that will
command the wonder and admiration of
the whole world, and bring such profits as
our present fruit-growers and fruit-driers
have never even dreamed of. Surely there
ought to be somebody in this valley even
now with energy and intelligence enough
to show that old settlers can do as much as
newcomers"
The CALL has frequently drawn atten-
ton to the fact that Crosse & Blackwell
buy California dried apricots, ship them
5000 miles to London, manufacture them
into marmalade and ship them back 5000
miles to California to be consumed. Is it
possible to imagine anything more deplor-
able? If this industry were one requiring
a capital of prohihitory size, or If there
were some secret or occult process in the
manufacture of the article, there would be
some excuse for our delinquency; but there
is nothing of the kind.
One manifest reason why the manufac-
lures of California are not preferred by our
people is that they are staple, and thus are
not easily distinguishable from the manu-
features OF other parts of the country This
is unavoidable, and the remedy for the in
difference in choice is to be found in the
education of the people on the lines pur-
sued by the Manufacturers and Producers
Association. But this will never relieve
our manufacturers of competition with out
siders, and while this is wholesome state
of affairs it will always keep the profits of
our manufacturers within the bounds
which competition creates.
The great profits are to be sought in the
production and manufacture of articles,
mainly luxuries, from which the element
of ordinary competition is eliminated by
the monopoly of peculiar climate. Thus,
while we have a monopoly in America in
the growing of apricots we might establish
a practical monopoly of their manufacture
into confects. 1t is in the intelligent and
persistent pursuit OF this idea, applicable
in more ways than we can at present con-
ceive, that the large profits of production
and manufacture are to be secured He
who has the originality to open new lines
OF development upon this idea is the most
useful citizen, as well as the one who will
secure the most generous returns from his
enterprise.