The Oregon daily journal., February 13, 1920, Page 10, Image 10

THE OREGON DAILY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1920.
WILSON IS ATTACKED
AT SOUTHERN OREGON
REPUBLICAN
BANQUET
Keynote Speech of Campaign in
Southern Oregon Delivered
at Medford Affair.
Medford, Feb. IS. Ths Republican
campaign In Southern Oregon opened
Thursday night with the banquet of the
Lincoln club of Jackaon county at the
Hotel Medford. attended by 800 people
from Medford, Ashland, Grants Paaa
and other parts of Jackson county, as
well as a number of prominent Repub
lican! from Portland and Salem, Includ
ing1 Judge Benaon of the supreme court,
Carl 8homaker of the fish and fame
commission and Major Dow V. Walker.
The addresS on Lincoln was given by
Bishop Matthew 8. Hughee of Portland,
the address on Roosevelt by Professor
Irving 8. Vtntng of Ashland, and the
political address by the new club presi
dent and toastmaster. Colonel R. C.
Washburn of Table Rock.
Telegrams tot congratulation were re
ceived from prominent Republicans
throughout the country-and Oregon, In
cluding Will H. Hayes.' national chair
man ; State Chairman Tongue and
Frank Warren of the fish and game
commission.
In ' his address. Colonel Washburn
attacked the Wilson administration
vaguely for its delay on entering into
the world war, and told how the war
was won "In spite of the delay, delin
quency, muddling and extravagance of
those In authority In the United States
government
In describing the peace negotiations
he said that the performance had
opened with "that screaming farce, open
covenants openly arrived at." The
speaker summed up the present situa
tion u follows : "If Republican sena
tors are in favor of the treaty with the
Americanised Lodge reservations, as are
also the Democratic senators not muz
sled and hog-tled by President Wilson,
And the predominance of opinion in
France and England favors it as do
President Lowell of Harvard and ex
Presldent Taft then I am in favor of it
and you are. The only obstacle to rati
fication and a complete peace and re
turn to normal times Is President Wil
son himself."
4 Umatilla Ipdiaiis
Stranded in Capital;
Council Refuses Aid
Pendleton, Feb. 13. Four Indians
from the Umatilla reservation are
stranded In . Washington without funds
to buy transportation home. They were
sent east by the council to present re
quests to the Indian department, but
from Pittsburg a wire came asking for
financial reinforcements. The council
was called but refused to send more ex
pense money.
Their plight was referred to the com
missioner at Washington and. If they
get home at all, it will be with money
drawn from the Indians' funds at Wash
ington. The victims of their tribes
men's frugality are Jim Yamawlt',"' Allen
Patawa, Jim Alllcott and Richard
Burke. -
Flu Keeps Hundreds
Of Yakima Children
From School Duties
Taklma. Wash., Feb. 13. The flu epi
demic cost the city schools JS18. as ap
portionment of both state and county
school money Is on the basis of actua:
attendance. The apportionment f nv)imt
to 14.5 cents daily for each grade pupil
and 21 cents dally for each high cchoo:
pupil.
During the past two weeks the aver
age number absent has been 325. of
whom 75 are high school pupils. Inur
ing the peak of the epidemic the ab
sentees reached 700. By the end of
the week the condition will be prac
tically normal.
Marshf ield Children
Not Vaccinated Are
Barred From School
Marshfield, Feb. 13. Few children
have bean went florae from the Marsh
field schools because they are not vac
cinated. Members of the newly organ
ised Antl-Vacc:r.a lion league have de
clared that they would not have their
children aeclniid and Intend to try
out the rtetj law. but the school au
thorities say that the percentage which
nuet stay out of school for this rea
sen will be m?il.
V - T m .
tier. n. v. nepnan, irom uarnon,
Iowa, new pastor of the Marshfield
Methodist church, has arrived to take
up his duties. He was appointed to fill
the vacancy caused by the death of ,
tne former pastor.
0. A. C. Hen& Make
Egg-Laying Record
Oregon Agricultural Collage. Corvallts,
Feb. 13. A pen of five Barred Rocks
from the college, entered In the West
ern Washington egg-laying contest, tied
for first place In January with a pen
of 8. C. W. Leghorns entered by the
Hollywood farm of Washington, with a
record of 127 eggs. For December the
O. A. C. pen won with a record of 132
eftgs. an average of 28 V eggs per hen.
The cost of feeding the birds amounted
to 83.1 cents a hen for the period. The
eggs were sold, at 65 cents a dozen for'
standard sizes and SO cents for pullet
eggs.
There Is One Safe
Place to Buy
Your Piano or
PVinriritTra rVi
"Onr Mtslcal Floor" tbe SereBth
Tor Youthful Figures A
KXRSCHBATJM
Two-Button, Single-Breasted Sack
THE VOGUE
Simple, sensible, thor
oughly stylish. High
waist, two-button effect,
impressed sleeves, and
soft rolling lapels
especially becoming to
the youthful figure.
Phegley & Cavender
Cor. Fourth and Alder Sts.
To Fruitgrowers, Merchants, Bankers DOES THE
Welfare of the FRUIT Industry
Touch YOU at Any Point ?
A BRIEF COMMETARY ON THE CONDITION OF THE FRUIT
INDUSTRY OF THE NORTHWEST
By W. F. GWIN, General Manager of the Northwestern
Fruit Exchange, Seattle, Wash.
Distinct changes appear to be taking place in the fruit industry
of the Northwest, which now faces new and difficult problems. '
There is now general acceptance of the prediction that "for the
next five years the railroads serving this territory will find it a physi
cal impossibility to furnish enough refrigerator equipment to move
the apple crop within the harvest period. The chances are that car
shortages in the future will be even more severe than in the past, if
production continues normally to increase.
The provision of even the best common storages and large in
creases in ranch storages, though no doubt useful and necessary,
,would not seem to meet the situation entirely, for if there are not
enough cars to move the entire offerings of early and intermediate
varieties, there is bound to recur in the future the situation which pre
vailed this year, and large portions of the most valuable varieties, such
as Delicious, Spitzenbergs, etc., even though protected from extremes
of temperature, will, nevertheless, become overripe while awaiting
cars, and therefore have to be forced into consumption at a discount.
It must continuously be borne in mind that all' but a small min
ority of the Northwestern apple crop eventually goes into cold storage
at destination points, if not at shipping points. Even Jonathans, to a
large extent, are put into cold storage by the buyers, and fed to the
markets gradually. One of the fundamental requirements for a
healthy market situation in boxed apples is thin and even distribution
over the consuming markets of the country and over the entire season
of normal keepability, that is to say: from the beginning of the
harvest in September until the last of the Winesaps are sold in July.
If, therefore, large quantities of fruit are necessarily held in the
Northwest under unsuitable storage conditions until the fruit becomes
ripe and unfit even for temporary storage at destination points, it
will result in the forced sale of large volumes of fruit in a compara
tively narrow period of time, and resulting automatically in very
erratic price movements and severe market demoralization.
There seems to be no answer to this problem other than ample
and efficient cold storage facilities in all producing districts and the
development of an inter-coastal water traffic. By means of cold stor
age at shipping points, so-called "intermediate varieties" could be held
in a state of preservation for weeks and even months longer than these
same varieties could be held in common storage, and the evil of forced
dumping removed.
Consider the conditions which prevailed this year: The car supply
was practically exhausted before the last Jonathans were shipped, and
while the majority of Delicious, Spitzenbergs and Rome Beauties were
still at shipping points. Traffic came to a practical standstill for sev
eral vital weeks. Some shippers, in desperation, turned to the use of
box cars, and some very severe losses were sustained by these shippers
because of an early spell of cold weather which occurred about the time
they were shipped. Finally, when the refrigerator car supply began to
improve, the entire territory west of Chicago was visited by a severely
cold wave, and hundreds of cars, loaded with the most valuable vari
eties, were caught in that cold wave, and losses running into hundreds
of thousands of dollars have been sustained by growers, shippers, rail
roads and dealers. This is waste. No industry can stand it.
The extremely wide margins between cost of production and sell
ing price, which prevailed last year and, in some instances, this year,
will not always prevail. It is imperative that means be found for the
prevention of this waste. Until they are found, the industry is still on
a hazardous, speculative basis, and cannot be said to have been stabil
ized. Certain vitally important, fundamental errors in the merchandis
ing methods employed by the growers and shippers in the Northwest
exists, and it would be well if everyone concerned in this industry
would give very serious, thoughtful attention to the history of this
year's market. In the first place, the big Eastern producing districts
have failed to mature a normal crop for the past three years consecu
tively a very extraordinary fact, .upon the . regular recurrence of
which no prudent man will depend. Nevertheless, this fact, taken in
connection with the period of extraordinary prosperity and steadily
advancing commodity prices brought about by the war, culminated
in a "bull'' market last year which, in many respects, is unique in the
history of the Northwestern apple business, and which may not be
repeated for many years, if ever. Also, last year was characterized
by most unusual winter weather conditions. No very low tempera
tures prevailed at any time anywhere 'in the country, and with an
adequate car supply and only a moderate crop of apples in the North
west, all conditions were as nearly ideal as possible. The result was
that many concerns new in the business, as well as established traders
and dealers, made handsome profits, and it was not strange that those
successful speculators and others who had heard of their successes,
rushed into the market this year and bid prices up with a degree
reckless abandon which was little short of amazing.
It became apparent to every real student of the situation, as early
as August, that prices had gone far above a conservative or a icason
able level, and that the apple market was being established on a wholly
artificial, speculative basis, without reference to fundamental con
ditions. However, so large a percentage of, the crop is controlled by
so-called "independent" growers, that no real control of the situation
lies in the hands of any group, and, the conservative element being in
the minority, is practically impotent. If the majority of the growers
were organized and in position to act concertedly, it would be possible
to regulate prices in some conformity with fundamental conditions,
and avoid, to a large extent, the eventual destruction of the market.
One is reminded of Aesop's fable which tells of a dog crossing a bridge
with a piece of meat in his mouth. Seeing the magnified reflection of
the meat in the water, he dropped the substance and grasped at the
shadow, and eventually was a sadder and a wiser dog. Independent
fruit growers, in many districts of the Northwest, this year, have sold
their apples at prices higher than they were worth. Many of them
have gotten the money. Others have been unable to enforce their
contracts, but even if all of them had gotten their money, can one
believe that they have served either themselves or the industry, for the
essential truth is that no producer is entitled to! more than the true
market value of his product, and, in the long rtin, is not going to
get it. No attempt is 1eing made hereby to fasten all of the blame
on the, grower. It is perfectly natural for him to want to sell his
product for as much money as he can get, and, if cash buyers become
excited and lose their heads and pay more for the fruit than.it is
worth, they art the chief immediate sufferers.
The fine point of all this,-which escapes most of the growers but
which is nevertheless vital is that the grower, in, the long run, is the
principal sufferer. The grower who is dependent upon speculators for
the market for his crops, will receive occasionally more than his product
is worth, but, more often, less than it is worth. What is wanted is
a system which insures to the grower every year, fll, fair market value
for his fruit, delivered to the market in first class prime condition no
more no less. This year, if the majority of th fruit production of
the Northwest had been in .cooperative control of the growers them
selves, under wise, intelligent sales management," fair opening prices
would have been established, a large consumptive demand encouraged,
and a steady, stable market would have been the result.
No better illustration of this truth is possible to find than in the
history of the marketing of the cranberry crop by-the American Cran
berry Exchange this season. The Cranberry Exchange is a cooperative
organization of growers controlling approximately 85 per cent of the
entire cranberry crop of the country. This year's crop was the largest
in the history of the Cranberry Exchange about twice as great as last
year. This fact, taken in connection with the most severe sugar short
age ever known in this country worse, even, than during the war
period constituted a combination of conditions which, except for wise;
tar-sighted handling of the market, would have resulted in disaster.
Mr. A. U. Chaney, general manager of the Amer ican Cranberry Ex
change (regarded in the fruit trade as the greatest: fruit sales strategist
in the United States) considered the alternative o opening the market
on cranberries at either $9.00 or $12.00 a barrel. ? Mr. Chaney always
carries his price calculation direct to the consumer, and, in reaching
a price per barrel f. o. b., he works it back from tjhe price per quart to
the consumer. His prestige with the trade, atd the dominance of his
control of the supply, taken together, would have. made it equally easy
for him to open the market at either $9.00 or $12.90. The trade would
have paid $12.00 per barrel for their first supplies without a murmur.
What Mr. Chaney was interested in, however! was establishing a
market on which the entire crop could be moved freely and easily, and
which could be maintained in a healthy condition throughout. The
intelligence of the cranberry growers was never? better demonstrated
than when they supported his recommendations' to open the market
at the lower level, viz.: $9.00 per barrel, thereby! temporarily sacrific
ing $3.00 per barrel. The result was that the first offerings of cran
berries were available to consumers at moderate. prices; dealers were
enabled to make a fair profit, and, very naturally, pushed the sale of
cranberries in preference to apples and other ccnmodities on which
they were actually losing money; the sugar shortage feature being
overcome by the national advertising campaign conducted by the Cran
berry growers, through the medium of which he consumers were
educated to the use of the recipes for the preparation of cranberries
requiring either very little" sugar or else sugar substitutes. The result
of all this has been that this year's cranberry cr4p,the largest in the
history of the country, has, by this time, practically all been marketed,
at highly profitable prices, and the season Jias peen entirely free of
wild fluctuations in price, and has exhibited a steadiness throughout.
In other words," the growers were not interested in marketing the first
hundred thousand barrels at an extreme price arid sacrificing 500,000
barrels. What they were interested in was: Marketing the entire crop
of 600,000 barrels at a maximum average price.! Can anyone doubt
what would have been the result had the cranbery crop been split up
in the hands of a multitude of independent growers, as the boxed apple
crop of the Northwest is split up? j
A study of Government apple storage statistics is illuminating.
The storage holdings of boxed apples on December 1 were 95.5co
greater than they were on the same date in Decerrfber, 1918. The expla
nation of this is very simple. It is merely that consumers have refused to
buy boxed apples from dealers at a price which iould afford the deal
ers a profit, and the dealers, in order to avoid, or at least postpone,
the loss, have placed their purchases in cold storage, thereby re
tarding consumption, and it is axiomatic in the business that con
sumption once retarded or stifled, is difficult and frequently impossi
ble ,to revive. The chances are that the dealers. ;by storage, are only
putting off the evil day, and will eventually take a loss more severe
than they would have in the first instance, but they, like the growers,
are human and resort to any legitimate means to protect them
selves. In the last analysis, the responsibility liqs with the producer
to inform himself as to fundamental condition, and to determine
what is the fair and reasonable price to place pn his product, and
to exercise the wisdom and restraint necessary Ifor the maintenance
of his business on a stable basis. He cannot eat his cake and have
it, top. j
If he permits his industry to become a speculative football, he
can expect nothing else than for his prices to solar in the air at cer
tain times and to hit the ground with a thud at Mothers, The law of
equal and opposite reaction is as certain as the law of gravitation.
It is too much to, expect that the average grower will reason this
thing out for himself and come to sound and logical conclusions, nor
that as long as the industry remains in its present unorganized con
dition the obvious remedies can successfully be 'applied. It is diffi
cult to see by any means how a sound, far-sighted marketing policy
can be employed, nor physical facilities necessaj-y for the preserva
tion of the frtiit and the equalization of distribution can be provided
other than through the growth of organization of the growers them
selves. 3
Many of the growers have been "drunk" with?so-called "independ
ence," and the indications are that most of these are due to suffer
the pangs of the "morning after.'uCertainlyit ishigh time for those
who profess to a certain degree of leadership togive mighty serious
study to the whole problem, and to join their forces and their influ
' ence in an unselfish, impartial, constructive way to the conservation
of the industry. j
An Invitation
A conference of fruitgrowing interests of tbe Northwest will bo held in Seattle at Press Club HU, 1311 Fifth Avenue, on Wednesday, Thursday, Fri
day and Saturday, February 18, 19, 20 and 21. Matters of groat importance to tbe whole industry will, be dealt with such as the prorutktn of adequate
cold storage warehouses in producing district; ways and means of minimising tbe dangers of ear shortages; ways and means of solving the acute prob
lem of a dependable supply of boxes at reasonable cost; cooperative purchase of orchard supplies; labor; bank credits any many other vital issues.
Every fruitgrower investor in orchard property backer or merchant directly or indirectly interested in these questions is urgently requested to
attend and take part in the conference. t
i - f
Skookum Packers' Association
Seattle, Wash.
J. A. WARM EN.
President.
P. R. PARKS,
General Manager.
3
Northwestern Fruit Exchange
Seattle, Wash.
REGINALD H. PARSONS. W. F. GWIN,
President. General Manager.
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