White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-05-27


situation the collective action of in
div'duals can be even worse than
that of tho bad trusts.
Last year the only thing hal
brought any money whatever into
Utah was the high price of wool. 1t
came into The state in the millions
and had it not the people of that
state would have been in precaricus
circumstances indeed for the year.
Utah is a state of three main in
dustries-sheep, fruit and mining.
These taken away and the state
would not amount TO much. to little
more than Nevada. Yet there Is not
one ordinary person in a hundred in
the state who seems to have the
breadth of mind to know. and admit
that good prices for these essential
products means individual prosper
ity. They may know ii In the case
of wool and have a somewhat more
vague idea of that sort with respect
TO copper and coal, but when it m
to the one industry that is closest
to the greater number of the people
of the commonwealth they either do
not know or do not want to know.
Those who think about ii may have
reioiced last year at the income from
the high price of wool as they must
the still higher price this year. 9th
ers may not have given thought to
what may have been the source of
the extra dollars that fell into their
pockets. Anyway the price of wool
was the source.
Now to the point. Wool prices are
controlled absolutely by a trust and
for the last two years they have been
extra good. Fruit prices are uncon-
trolled but are the making of the
many. Fruit growers are small OPP
orators and they are unorgaDized and
probably unorganizable. Each n
goes il for himself and in Utah the
recourse when the market in the east
does not suit the growers is to ped
die their fruit to the houses of the
mining camps and other settlements
where no fruit Is grown, in parts OF
tho state where the crop is n failure
and in the edges of the neighboring
states of Wyoming, Colorado and
Nevada. Most of it is reddled within
the state OF Utah and a great deal
almost under the shadows o. the or
chards. For instance, with many
t~rainloads of fruit grown OIL Provo
bench little indeed is grown down
at American Fork and Lehi. There
are lots OF places too low and others
too high. and these nav be within
ten or twenty miles of the finest or
chards in the west in the intermedi-
ate altitude
Naturally one at his distance
would think that everybody in Utah
would rejoice when fruit is high. but
such is the opposite of being the
case. The people OF Lehi get as an
CRY as ii is possible for them to be
when they have to pay high prices
for fruit and the lower it goes the
good feeling whatever for the grow
ers of Provo bench and rather than
have sympathy for them during a
slump like that of last year they ere
tickled to death with 1t, caring moth
ing about what 1t would mean to
every man, woman and child in Utah
10 get top fruit prices, il only they
individually can have their fruit for
nearly nothing-actually nothing
would suit the majority OF them bet
ter. Each is looking out for number
one, or imagining he is, though he
is so shortsighted that he actually is
doing himself harm but Toes rot
know L.
Now here is the difference. Wool
is bought and sold by a trust. Fruit
is sold out in piecemeal by the indi-
vidual Yet the same people-the
same Utah people-who buy home
grown fruit and kick on the price
also buy homegrown wool and it
never occurs to them to kick. II this
game wool were peddled from EG Is.
TO house, as the fruit is, then there
would be a kick and a loud one. Then
the people CT Utah would fail 10 dis
Germ the advantage OF high priced
wool and would hammer 1t doYn to
nothing IL they could, wishing :or
the growers to be impoverished so
that they could have. 1t for the shear
Ing. the same as those who are not
fruit growers but live within a few
miles wish for the opportunities to
have their fruit for the picking.
So long as the wool trust realm
tains It's present policy of keeping the
price up to a highly profitable figure
1t will be doing a service to Utah,
which the people in direct action re-
fuse to duplicate in the case Of an
other important product, which is
vital to the prosperity of the s.ate.
1t may not always do so. but for the
time being it must be admitted that
the wool trust Is Utah's best friend
and its own people are its worst on
emies.