Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1914-07-17
VOLUME 8
Free Trade Hits Farmers.


The practical side of free trade as
it touches the American farmer is
we'll illustrated in the matter of
eggs, on the importation of which
one man has cleared $50, 600 on 5000
cases. Here is a story on ''hen
fruit" recently published:
Shipments of Chinese eggs to the
markets of the Pacific northwest, pre-
cipitated by the new tariff law, have
developed a highly profitable business
for a number of importing houses.
The business started last December
and has grown steadily in magnitude.
A Seattle dispatch says heavy ship
ments have reached that port, and
that large shipments are made regu-
larly to Vancouver and San Francisco.
1t seems that wholesale liquor
dealer on the coast, with represent
ative in China, was first to grasp the
possibilities that We're opened up in
this line by the new tariff law. 1t is
reported in San Francisco trade cir
cles that he quickly cleared up a
profit of $40, 900 on shipments of 5000
cases. The eggs cost him at the Chi
nese port only 72 cents a case; the
ocean freight 25 cents and the cases
cost about 80 cents, making total of
$1.27 case, or a trifie more than 4
cents dozen. He readily sold these
ys,,%1 %r
dozen f. o. b. wharf, so his profit was
nearly 20 cents a dozen. These eggs
come chiefly from the great valley of
the Yangtze river and recent consul
lar report says the supply will be
found practically unlimited. Little
new organization was required in
China to start the egg movement to
the United States for an extensive
trade had been previouly built up in
exporting the product to other coun-
tries. In 1912, according to our
consul general, Amos P. Wilmer of
Shanghai, the export of fresh and
preserved eggs to foreign coun-
tries reached nearly $4,000, 900 dozen,
valued at 81, 1874, ,511. The export Of
egg albumen and yolk reached 166, 88e
hundred weight, valued at 81, 418, O73.
American wage earners will be in
terested in Mr.. Wilder's information
that the women who work in the by
product factories over there are paiG
from s to u cents per day, and the
men who perform the "skilled" labor
get SIS or Sc a month; and at these
wages they board themselves.
Before the passage of our new tar
if law very little of this produc
came to the United States, but th'
concerns engaged in the business wer'
quick to sieze the opportunity pre-
sented by that law to move their pro
ducts into the best markets of th'
world. Five thousand cases came t
the United States in December ar,
about 20, 900 cases in January.
Yielding to the protests from
American producers and firms engages
in the business of handling the hom
product, the United States department
of agriculture has ordered that here
after all cases of Chinese eggs shal
be branded Products of China.
Heretofore they have been labele
Fresh Pullsts," as their smalle
size gives them the appearance Amer
lean pullet eggs. AS the eggs ar
bought in China by weight and sol
in the United States by the dozen, tn
business has proven enticingly profit
able.
1t is not probable that this actio
by the department of agriculture vii
materially check business that seem
to offer such inviting rewards. Pre-
judice against Chinese product wi
probably prove to be only ephemera
Our people take Chinese teas, rice
and other Asiatic food product
without qualm, products which mu'
be handled directly by Asiatic hand
whereas eggs are encased by natul
in their own shells and come to o,
market with far greater assuran.
of cleanliness.
C. 0. Metzker, representing Il
Uhitype company of Brooklyn, N. Y
after a week in Orofino installing ol