Arizona republican., 1913-08-16
ARIZONA OSTRFCHES
 SHOULD BE PROTECTED
Plan Proposed Against Imported d
 Feathers.

The Republican has received the following communication from Los Angeles relative to the ostrich indus try. The suggestions contained therein are excellent but how they are to be carried into effect by legis-
 lation is not explained. Nor, is it
 quite understood what is meant in the statement relating to the absence of duty on Arizona feathers sent i to California to be prepared for the market
 Arizona has three million six hun dred thousand dollars worth of os | triches The crops of feathers from | these creatures which ripen every | eight months, fall. off or are plucled 1 and gathered by the various owners, ! individuals and corporations, amount | in value to nearly half million dol | lars. Most of these join that grand African ostrich feather contingent | that arrive from England on Eng l fish bottoms at New York and is manufactured by poor Italian women and children in the disease infested ] sIums of that great metropolis. From | there it is transmitted all over the 1 country to the various millinery
 establishments and sold to the Ameri-
 can feminine public. Produced by pauper labor at starvation wages in
 the tenements it forms a disgraceful asset in the great American indus
 tries when we consider that over a
 million dollars has been spent within
 the last ten years advertising the 1 California ostrich feathers and mak- | ing them famed to the furthest bor- | der of the American commonwealth | It is the duty of Arizona to have proper legislation enacted so that these Arizona ostrich feathers may
 be turned duty free into California, manufactured by healthy white Wo- men at good wages amid cOngenial land hygienic surroundings and sold | to the countless tourists that ever | decorate the sundried areas of the Golden State, many of whom pur- chase the disease infested product or the New York slums under the inn pression that they are buying genu inc California ostrich feathers The idea and recommendation is to com pei the merchants in the great cities of California to real in California feathers. which means of course Ari- Zona instead of the fraud they are now perpetratinG upon the hosts ol innocent females American tourists who are sold this slum product as genuine California ostrich feathers. Every patriotic American woman VIII
 resent the fraud practiced upon her.
 over the rugged mountains and ster-
 iIo wastes they take these feathers in
 vast quantities from California to
 their distant habitations in the ettete
 and verdant east, and exhibit to thelF
 delighted friends these souvenirs or
 the Golden state. whereas in truth
 and in fact they convey nothing put
 the product of Africa, nursed by the
 English. sold to American manu-
 facturers at the great auction blocks
 of London. and manufactured by the
 foreign unfortunates that crowd the
 dirt covered sIums of New York
 "The remedy for this is the applica-
 tion of laws of the character that ap-
 plv to foods and drugs to this new
 and valuable and remuneratlVe west
 ern industry, in which Arizona leadS
 the states of the union in the pro
 duction of ostrich feathers and the
 number of ostrich population. A law
 protecting American ostrich feathers
 can be easily passed by the Caltor-
 nia legislature and thus will the
 honor of the state be redeemed lie women protected and uncounted IoI-
 tunes germinated for the American
 citizens and shareholders financially Interested in the business Ere this
 fraud became popular the California
 ostrich feather companies divided 50
 per cent per annum among their de-
 lighted stockholders: now they are
 going out of business or declaring
 ten per cent assessments on thelr
 stock. It is neither wise nor proper
 to prohibit the importation or tne
 African ostrich feather, but IL IS III
 harmony with all principles ot justice
 that Arizona and California Shouid
 mite for the protection of this mag
 pificent American industry, and not
 hermit misrepresentation