The herald., 1897-02-06
TARIFF ON ORANGES

The orange growers of Southern Cal
cure an increase in the tariff on citrus
fruits of all sorts and on the by pro-
ducts of the orange and lemon. This
is a movement that The Herald, al
though a Democratic paper, and one
that opposes the doctrine of high pro-
tective tariff unhesitatingly commends.
The Democratic party maintains that
customs duties should be levied primar-
lily with view to securing revenue for
the country's support, and not for the
purpose of enriching one set of men at
the expense of all the others. The peo-
pie Of the United States at the last ma
tional election saw fit to throw out the
Democratic party and place all branches
of the government in the hands of the
political party that maintains the doc
trine of high protection, and that will
without doubt proceed to put that pol
icy into effect There may have been
OlIleT lSSutS IlIol vi lcSS lHNOlNCo III tiAC
campaign, but as far as actual results
go, the protection idea has been accept
ed by the action of the people.
This removes the main question, so
to speak, temporarily from the debate.
and brings us face to face with sub
sidiary issue, viz: since protection is
to be the order of the day, are We to
have our share or not? To illustrate,
suppose in some stock company scheme
was advanced to declare am assessment
on the stock, throw away one-third of
the money raised, and distribute the
remainder pro rata back to the stock
holders that had just paid it in. A SEN
sible man would probably vote against
the whole scheme; but if it were car
ried against him, when the remaining
money came to be distributed, he would
certainly not be so foolish as to refuse
his share. In the new tariff bill every
body gets" something; the iron man,
the coal man, the glass man, the lumber
man, and all the rest of them are there
in full force, clamoring like the daugh-
ters of the horseleech and Oliver Twist
in chorus for More, more" The Southern
California orange grower may take ex-
ception to the whole scheme that un-
derlies the thing, but he cannot afford to
throw away whatever compensating ad-
vantages may arise. He must not labor
under the handicap of being the only
unprotected" Individual on American
soil.
The present tariff-practically the
same under the Wilson and the Nc
Kinley acts-amounts to about 20 cents
a. box. There was meeting held in
the northern part of the state a few
weeks ago. at which no Southern Cali
fornia growers were present, and it was
decided to ask congress to increase the
existing tariff to about 35 cents box.
Petitions were sent to Washington,
signed by a number of growers asking
lIldI tlc Tai AL OS iiINlCoSCu ~ Nv SNi4to
box. Other petitions have simply
asked that the tariff be doubled
On the 26th of December a meeting
of orange growers was held in this city
at which all of the counties in Southern
California were represented by wei!
known and responsible citrus fruit grow
ers. The action taken at this meeting
was logical and consistent. Instead Of
asking for specified duty on the general
principle that any tariff was good as far
al it went, the meeting took the position
that if projections was to be had, they
wanted the real article, and no paltry,
halfway substitute. Their demand was
in effect that such a tariff should be
placed on the foreign fruit as would put
it on a level with our product To ascer-
tain exactly what this figure is to be
there must first be calculated as near
as possible the real expense of producing
a box of California fruit and the cost of
laying it down in the eastern market
Next. figures should be had on the cost
of the foreign fruit laid down in the
American market. The difference be-