The San Francisco call., 1896-05-16
MoRToN's ADDRESS.

The address delivered by Secretary Nor
ton at the Board OF Trade rooms on Thurs
| day emphasized one of the important fea-
| lures of the present condition of the fruit
| industry of the State. The amount of
| fruit grown in the United States is so large
that much of it under prevailing condi-
| tions must seek foreign market. In those
markets the best fruit will bring the best
prices and in the end the poorer fruit will
be driven out altogether. 1t is therefore a
matter of concern to our orchardists that
The fruit sent abroad should be of the best
quality, well picked and well packed.
Without care in this re gard the excellence
OF our fruit may go for nothing, while
| with care we may become the purveyors Of
the luxuries of the world.
While there can be no dispute as to the
value of the counsel given by the Secre-
tary it will not escape the notice of intel
ligent men that be has regarded the sub
ject from the standpoin of free-trader.
To him the foreign market is everything.
He has not stopped to consider that under
better conditions the home market of the
United States could readily consume all
the fruit products of California at prices
much above those which prevail in Eu-
rope. The bias of the Secretary is clearly
shown in letter to the Examiner, pub
lished yesterday, in which he said: "Those
periods during which prices are high have
been generally called good times, but the
economic millennium will be when n all hu-
manity is oftenest fed and best clothed at
the smallest possible cost to each indi-
vidual.'
There Is something enticing in the sug-
gestion of millennium when fooo and
clothing can be had at the least possible
cost, but that millennium prevails in the
tropic islands at this time. The result Is
the people of those islands are satisfied
with bananas and breech clout. They
do no work. They make no progress.
That is not the social condition Ameri-
cans aspire to. We prefer living that is
not so cheap. High prices, good wages,
work, enterprise and progress are our
ideals. That is the political economy this
country proposes to practice after having
experienced the disasters which even a
comparatively slight step in the other
direction has brought upon all the indus
tries and hon es of the country.
1t is undoubtedly we'll for US to follow
the Secretary's advice IN sending we'll
packed fruit to the foreign market, but
that is not the most important step to be
taken in the development of our fruit
industry. What is most needed in Cali
fornia at this time is a completer manu-
facture of the finished products OF fruit
and completer control not only of the
home, but even of the local market
While we are importing glace fruits
| and fine conserves from France,
jams, iellies and preserves from Eng
land and marmalades from Scotland, the
| possession of the foreign market for raw
fruit is of less concern to US than the estab-
lishment of preserving factories at
home.
Under thorough system of protection
that would revive industry, employ labor,
raise wages, stim enterprise and JUS
tify the increase of manufactured goods,
the California fruit-grower would have a
better market at home than he can hope
for in Europe. High wages, high prices
and the full manufacture of our raw mate
rial are the things to be sought. 1t sounds
well to speak of California as the purveyor
OF luxuries to the world, but we would
prefer to send those luxuries forth in a
| finished form rather than send them
abroad as raw fruit at 5 cents a pound and
have 10 buy them back as dehcacies at nifty
| times that sum.