The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-09-16
Underwood Bouquets and BriCkbatS

More weeds are said to grow today
on one acre than formerly grew in a
whole township. They are infesting
our orchards, alfalfa fields and flourish
ing along our roadways. Some people,
too, seem to be bent upon making two
cOckleburs grow where only one grew
before.
Brother Sieg tells US that many fruit
growers are losing dollars because they
do not keep in touch with their local
shipping association. Over here we
early asked our Fruit Growers Union
to handle our Bartlett pears. but there
being no carload in sight, we were told
to turn the lot over to a Portland com
mission man, who could handle them for
US cheaper than the Union. So the
Union seems in some cases not able to
help US and we have to depend on our
individual resources. One man shipped
his pears to Idaho and received 80 cents
per box net, while those sent to ort-
land netted only 80 cents. Some were
shipped to The Dalles cannery at $l8
per ton. If our Unions cannot handle
our stuff they should at least be able
to tell US where to ship for the best
market and prices. When we organized
our selling agencies and chose our Off
cials we thought most of our troubles
were over, but there seems to be still a
lot of chaos, confusion and lack of con-
nection. There are many hopes, prom
ises and cheerful talk, like that handed
out by Bro. Sieg, in regard to market
ing orchard products, which reduced to
brass tacks of actual returns to the
grower, turn out to be only hot air and
irrdescent dreams.
When one man was asked what he
considered the chief attraction of Ore
gon, he replied, 'Boundless possibili-
ties y There are bOundless pOssibili-
ties in the fruit industry and other en-
terprises of the Pacific northwest and
one day they will be realized. The
European cyclone of carnage and of
waste will no doubt subside, though
the bill for this unsurpassed brutality
and waste will have to be paid by US as
we'll as by those who pulled off the stu
pendous slaughter. After the storm
the whole structure of human society
and international relations will have to
be reared on some other law than that
of the jungle, trinitrotoluol and high
explosives. In this vast future of the
upward march of humanity the Pacific
coast will play large part. Only we
must remember the Pacific coast is in
Asia MS well as in America, and the
Asiatic Pacific coast is as likely to play
a great part as we'll as our own. We
shall have more intercourse .and com
merce with our Asatic friends who
will have a place in the sun as well as
ourselves, and we must be good neigh
bors to them.
We need more consumers and more
people on our vacant lands. Some of
the best land in Oregon and Washing
ton remains idle, or held by speculat-
ors, while jobless men wander around
hunting employment. There is malad-
Justment here that dishonors our flag
and our Declaration of Independence.
Carnegie, Rockefeller and hundred mil
ilonares at one end of society, and
sweat.shops, Mother Jones and jobless
men at the other end, is un-American
and undemocratc. To call this Chris
tian civilization would be libel on
Christianity. 1t is disgrace to US as
American citizens, as Christians, hea-
then, Mohammedans, iDfidels or what
ever we are.
The fire warden who came up to look
after our big fire on the Underwood
bluff, came in for considerable criti-
cism as not being onto his job. Per.
haps some of this was deserved, only
we must remember that whoever un-
dertakes to serve the public as public
official, school teacher, preacher, or
newspaper editor, will be subject to
lot of fault-fnding, which like the vir-
gins of old, is partly wise and partly
foolish, most generally the latter.
Thistledown.