The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-07-15
NO PROTECTION
AGAINST CHINESE EGGS

AGAINST CHINESE EGGS
For the protection of American in
dustry, there is nothing that will take
the place of a protective tariff. Con
seduently, there is lam%entation in the
Web-foot state. Ever since the pass
age of the Underwood tariff abomina-
ton. which placed eggs on the free
list. the state of Oregon and the Pa
cifc coast in general has been a dump
ing place for Chinese eggs. The Ore
gon markets have been glutted with
hen fruit laid at a time when Confu-
eius was
"A somewhat p~ottle-bodied boy
Who knuckled at the taw."
So severe was the competition to
which Oregon egg producers were sub
iected that the state legislature took
c~ognizance of the situation and passed
a law known as the Chinese egg law
providing that vendors and users of
Oriental G G should display a sign
declaring such eggs to be imported.
Recently the state took legal action,
under this law, against n j. c. ia
cobson, who was convicted in the cir
cult court of violating the law by Of
fering for sale cake, the ingredients
of which were partly composed of
eggs imported from China, without
displaying a sign in his salesroom
bearing the words. Imported eggs
used here On appeal to the state Su-
preme Court this decision was revers-
ed on the ground that the law invad-
ed the domain of legislation given to
Congress, and violated Section s. Ar
ticle /, of the United States Constitu-
ton. Jacobson may continue to use
Chinese pos~t-pliocene eggs in his
cakes.
The Chinese selling price of eggs
brings up an interesting question
relative to the anti-dumping clause
which the Democrats are holding
forth as vote-catching bait. This
clause proposes to lay a duty, gener-
ally placed at Is per cent, against any
products dumped in the United States
at prices lower than the fair market
price in the country of origin. OF
course any price at which products
may be readily disposed of in a for
eign country is a fair market price,
so far as that country is concerned.
Oscar King Davis. correspondent of
the Chicago Tribune, while travelling
in China for his paper a short time
ago, wrote: The retail price in the
eastern part of the United States, with
which l happen to be familiar, last
year, was approximately 3 cents per
egg. The retail price in the part of
China which l have just visited is
eight-seventieths of a cent per egg.
One egg at home is worth 26h eggs
in this province"
vice-Consul Gilbert, of Marking,
China, last year reported consign-
ments of eggs from China to the Pa
cifc coast at four and six-tenths cents
a dozen, and frozen eggs at three
cents a dozen.
In addition to these remarkably low
prices for Chinese eggs, the fact re-
mains that the price of eggs in the
United States is constantly fuctuat-
ing. There is moi an actuary or a
politician, or a tariff expert in the
United States who could prescribe a
dumping duty applicable to eggs inn
ported from China. This is but one
more example of the fact that a dump
ing duty is of absolutely no value
unless it works in conjunction with a
protective tariff. The Republican par
ty stands for a protective tariff, and
once it is in power the Legislature of
the state of Oregon will not have TO
puzzle itself in attempts to enact laws
to counterfeit an evil forced on them
by the Democratic policy of free