The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-04-04
THEORETICAL FOOD
MEN ON APPLES

lh6 following communication sent
out last week by the Fruit Growers
Agency shows how theoretical are
5 me Of the recent emanations from
Offices Of the food administration:
Considerable uneasiness prevails
the fruit growers Of the
on the ground that adverse
rulings may be issued by the food ad
whereby northwestern ap-
Piles would not be permitted to be ship
ped into eastern sections producing
apple crops Of.their oSn.
j. B. Adams, president of the Fruit
Growers Agency, an organization which
represents 80 per cent of the entire in
dustry, in a recent interview made
the following statement;
II cannot believe that any such
drastic and ruinOus rules would he
made by the responsible heads of the
government. | feel very certain that
the growers fears are groundless, but
bave nevertheless taken nothing for
granted and have written to all of the
senators and representatives from
Oregon. Idaho and Mon
ldUS lile lOllONniR ltllSE
'In the Literary Digest of Deem
ber 18th, on the 32nd page. appears a
special article by the United States
Food Administration, designed for text
book use in high school. entitled a
Remedy for Food Transportation Evils.
Among other things, the following
very important statements are made:
=" Effects of the Zone System. A
zone system rightly applied to certain
food would be Instrumental in keeping
the consumer in each district from US.
ing food stuffs from other districts,
when the same commodity is at hand
in his own zone. Thus the New York
consumer would eat New York apples,
instead of exchanging them for the
Oregon products. This would not
only, in measure. overcome transpor-
tation evils, but might also result in
lower food prices.
Under the title of The Waste of
Cross Hauling this statement is made:
Apples from western New York
may be moving by freight to Washing
ton and Oregon. at the same time that
other apples. raised IN those states,
are coming east. By such procedure,
which is not infrequent in the case of
a number of food stutfs. nothing has
been gained ard vast amount of
energy and the use of cars for other
purposes has been lost.
AT the bottom of the article, under
tn e title, Questions for Discussion
" Do you know of any food com
modify produced in your country which
is shipped out and later shipped back
TO the retailer? Why is this justifiable
for some grains, but not for apples?'
"Only three questions are proposed,
and it is significant that apples are
centered out for attack.
Presumably these educational cate
chisms are being handled by some Of
the more theoretical men attached to
the food administration staff. We need
hardly call your attention to the fact
that about $500, 900, 900 have been in
vested in the four Pacific northwest
states in apple orchards and the only
salvation for the thousands of fruit
growers and the tens of thousands of
their dependents rests in the very thin
distribution Of this fruit over all of the
markets of the world, particularly the
entire domestic market. Even under
most skilful distribution and most ex-
pert salesmanship. it is sometimes a
question of minimizing the loss to the
producer and in no season in the past
five years has the producers profit
been other than very modest and pre-
carious.
ANY restriction of the markets
would result in widespread disaster
and ruinaton throughout many Sec
tions of the Pacific Northwest. We
cannot conceive that such a drastic
course would square with President
Wilson $ fundamental policy of so reg
ulating affairs as to dislocate business
and industry as little as possible.
"The orchard industry is in different
position from that of factories manu-
featuring non perishable merchandise.
The orchard factory can not be closed
down for few months or a season and
then reopened. If artificial restrc-
tions are imposed whereby the markets
will be narrowed and prices fall below
the cost of production the resulting
neglect of orchards will result in per-
manent damage to them and irrepar-
able loss will be sustained.
Your earnest consideration to the
foregoing is invited by this Agency
which represents over 80 per cent Of
the entire industry of the four north.
western states and your protective
vigilance solicited. Meanwhile, we
would greatly appreciate investigation
on your part as to the attitude of the
responsible heads of the food admins
traton and their explanation Of the
particular citation in the Literary Di-
gest which we have quoted.
"We desire in conclusion strongly to
recommend that you call upon Mr..
Chas. J. Brand, chief of the Bureau
of Markets, for his judgment concern
ing the question involved. Mr.. Brand
and his staff are in possession of a
great amount of detailed information
concerning the orchard industry of the
northwest and we believe it would be
most advantageous for you to keep in
very close touch with his office in mat
ters affecting our interests.