The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-15
FOSTERING INDUSTRIES.
An Important Meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce
Tomorrow.
LEGISLATION IS NEEDED.
The Half Million Club and the State
and City Boards of Trade
to Attend.

An important meeting of the Chamber
of Commerce in which the Half-million
Club and the State and City Boards of
Trade have been invited to participate
will be held tomorrow at 80 P. II. at the
rooms of the Chamber of Commerce. The
call issued by President Dim ond sets forth
the objects of the meeting as follows:
A meeting of the Chamber of Commerce is
hereby called by the trustees thereof for
Thursday, the 10Th day of May, ct 1 80 P. M,
to consider the question of a bounty on the
exports of agricultural staples and a tonnage
bounty or differential duty in favor of Ameri-
can shipping Both of these great industries
are now unprotected, while the Government
extends its fostering care over the manufac-
turing interests of the country. 1t is realized
that so long as the present widespread depres-
sion in these two great unprotected interests
prevail there can be no permanent commercial
and industrial revival, and that it is therefore
the part of sound commercial wisdom to secure
such legislation as will place both of them
upon an equal footing with the most favored
industry.
The proposition of protection to staple agri-
culture by an export bounty has received the
| approval of the Committee on Agriculture of
the House of Representatives, the State
Grange of this and other States and is being
widely discussed by the farmers of the country.
1t was also Endorsed by the Legislature of Cali
fornia at its last session in the form of q me-
mortal to Congress, which was read in the
United States Senate by Hon. George c. Per-
k1ns. The idea OF uniting shipping and agri-
culture upon this common ground for protec-
ton has been Endorsed by the prominent ship
ping firms of San Francisco.
Believing that a union of the shipping and
agricultural interests will be able to accom-
plish much of mutual advantage that is be-
yond the reach of either unaided, this call is
issued to the mem bers of the Chamber of Com
merce in the hope that it will be the forerun-
ner of such a union. Various attempts have
recently been made in this City to overcome
the destructive tendencies of this adverse con-
dition, is evidenced in the meeting for the
encouragement OF home manufactures and in
the formation of the Half-million Club.
Praiseworthy as these efforts are they alone
are insufficient as long as the principal pur-
chasing class. the producers of agricultural
staples, must still continue to pay for la Dor and
necessities at nearly as high rates as in former
times, and who are at the same time compelled
to receive for their products half their former
ruling prices.
1t is scarcely necessary to point out the evil
results of this great shrinkage in the purchas-
ing power of the farmers. These are apparent
in the decline of the demand for labor, in the
Shrunken values of City and country real
estate, in the depreciation in the value of
securities, in the lessened value of our exports,
which, by forcing gold abroad, threatens the
depreciation of our currency.
But of far more importance is the considera-
ton that the present depressed condition, I'M
less remedied, must tend to the elimination of
our independent land-owning farmers and
their replacement by low-type peasant ten
antry, thereby not alone destroying the pur-
chasing power of the Nation, but also end an
gering the perpetuity of the Republic. The
merchants of San Francisco no doubt keenly
realize how largely commercial success is de-
pendent upon the prosperity of the agricultural
and shipping interests.
The bounty system helped the tillers of
the soil in Great Britain most materially.
1t resulted, according to the writer's on
political economy, in securing to them a
good price for their products at all times
and thus furnished an additional incen-
tive to industry.