The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1912-02-02
PASS SOME LAWS IN
INTEREST OF FARMERS
If We Put a Tariff on all He Buys Why
Not on What He Sells

Isn't it about time that someone arose
TO champion the interests of the farmer
and the fruit grower, asks our Washing
ton correspondent.
In times past, we have seen states
men, and editors too, for that matter,
deeply concerned for the protection Of
the mechanic and the artisan: but has
the farmer ever got what was coming
to him7 And by farmer let US under
stand here everyone who makes his
living by tilling the soil, whether ne
cultivates beans or wheat or apples or
corn, or expresses the juice OF the ap-
pie or grape for use as beverage.
For that matter every farmer, in the
restricted sense, should be fruitgrow-
er as well. and even more should ne be
a fruit consumer; for has not the great
and benefcient DR.. Wiley said: Eat
oranges; eat them every dayl" Which
being interpreted into the vernacular
means really, eat fruit. You can't al
ways get oranges and while the value
OF oranges and lemons cannot be denied
it is also conducive to health to eat
apples, pears, peaches, prunes, april
cots-in short such fruit as the market
affords. The more that people eat OF
fruit the better it will be for the nation.
It will save doctors bills, prolong life,
and make you cheerful, though mar
ried. DR.. Wiley says so, and no one
knows better than he.
The growth Of the fruit interests may
be fairly said to be one of the marvels
of the age. Once it was rare to see
any fruit trees growing on farm. ex-
cept perhaps wild ones. Now it's
poor farmer that fails to grow some
fruit. Look at our apple crop. The
valley of the Shenandoah supplied the
table of Queen Victoria with apples.
The producers OF our orchards not only
feed the millions Of people under the
Stars and Stripes, but they supply, in
part at least, the markets of the world
and every year they are growing in de-
mand abroad. Look at the pears, and
peaches, and grapes, and raisins, and
English walnuts, other fruit products,
taking first place wherever they are
shown. See the pineapples, guaves
and grape fruit from Florida; California's
oranges and lemons crowding the for
eign product 10 the wall. The southof
Texas, with the aid of tariff on Ber-
muda onions, growing those fearless
vegetables and the Peerless Leader OF
the democracy reaping fortune, ac-
cording to current reports, from their
culture. New York, Michigan. Oregon,
Washington, Arizona-think Of Arizona
looming up as fruit state, why, almost
every state is q leader in some form OF
horticultural production.
What VIII congress do for the farmer
and the fruitgrower7 It tried last sum-
mer to give him farmers free list, So
called, and then..by strange freak Of
reasoning it started to put his own
products on the free list also by adding
lemons to the list, and if it had been
successful there one can't say where it
would have ended. Whatever tree
traders may believe, the tariff on oranges
has resulted in driving the foreign
orange from the American market, and
with protection the lemon growers are
now supplying one-half the home mar
ket and they will be able to supply the
other half if they are allowed reasonable
protection. In both cases, prices have
declined as the industry has grown.
Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona,
California and other states now grow
oranges. California grows lemons, and
IL has the peculiar climate and soil to
permit it to grow more. If the supply
be limited by discouraging citrus cul-
ture in this country, can even an anna
teur political economist reason that the
tariff should be lowered7 Why, ask
the growers, should an industry be en-
couraged to the extent that it can sup
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