The San Francisco call., 1904-11-07

SAN JOSE, Nov. 6.-The following
will appear in the San Jose Mercury to-
morrow:
The Examiner in it's campaign Of filth
against E. A. Hayes published yester-
day an article that has set the Santa
Clara Valley buzzing with interest.
Were the ideas in the article as pub
hshed and approved by the Examiner
carried out the greatest industry en-
ploying labor in the Santa Clara Valley
would be wiped out. With it would go
allied industries. Every town south of
Palo Alto to Hollister, including San
Jose and Santa Clara, would suffer ir-
reparable damage. Every merchant and
every merchants employees, property
owners and business men in general
would suffer, directly or indirectly.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in
vested in packing houses and packing
house machinery would be total loss.
The thousands of working men and
women employed in packing fruit
would be thrown out of work. Yet the
Examiner approves OF this, and thus
shows the utter sham and hollow insin-
cerity of its claim that 1t is the friend
Of the workingmen.
To create a nonsensical argument to
influence the fruit growers against
Hayes it is willing to paralyze the
greatest labor employing industry In
California, one that exists in every val
ley in the State and is the chief sup
port Of many Of our most thriving CIT
les. With its disregard for the protec-
ton of home labor that has marked
every step of it's free trade career, 1t
advocates the election of Wynn over
Hayes because the latter insists that
California grown fruit, for the benefit
of working men and women and fruit
growers alike, must be packed in Cali
fornia boxes by California working
people in California packing houses
with the aid of machinery all made in
California, and should be exported un-
der California brands to advertise the
State.
SCHEME OF VISIONARY.
For his stand in this matter in behalf
of California Hayes was yesterday at
tackled by the Examiner. A local vision
ary by the name of Henning presented
to the Mercury In October an article
on the cured fruit industry, in which
he proposed to force the transconti-
mental railroads to make the freight
rates on dried fruit in boxes and bags
when sent East the same He then
claimed that Eastern dealers in fruits
would buy all their prunes in sacks and
pack them in boxes in the East, since
with the freight rates the same they
would not pay freight on the boxes,
paper lining or paper cartons, and the
increase in weight in processing, but
would take the prunes from the trays
after drying direct East. The prunes
would then be packed in the East, and
all that labor which should be done in
California would be performed else
where. It was claimed that great good
would result to the growers, because
the dealer In the East would be en-
couraged to buy prunes in bags and
pack them there under his own brand.
In his letter published and approved
by the examiner Henning charged
that the prune market was confined to
six packers on the coast, that the
principal packing houses of the Santa
Clara Valley are on land owned by the
Southern Pacific and that there was
a combination between the railroad
and the packing houses to keep the
freight rate on fruit in bags higher
than that on fruit in boxes, so that
all the fruit would move in the latter
state. Henning closed his appeal by
suggesting that the growers strike
against the so called discriminating
rate in favor of boxed prunes.
The article was referred to 2. A.
Hayes. who has a large interest in the
Mercury. and is one of the oldest and
largest prune growers in the valley.