Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
U.S. wheat industry
listens to its customers
around the globe
It is a fundamental of business
Associates has established a network
of foreign ofices in such far-lung
that it is important — make
locations as Japan, Nigeria, the
that crucial — to talk with your
Philippines, South Africa, Russia,
customers. And listen.
the Netherlands, Egypt, China,
Our sister paper the Capital
Taiwan, Mexico, Morocco and
Press recently took a close look at
Chile.
how the U.S. wheat
In the Paciic
industry does just
The needs of
Northwest, most of
that. Breeders,
wheat grown is
farmers, elevators
the customers the
soft white and club
and exporters
are foremost
wheat, a subclass of
are all plugged
soft white wheat.
into the needs of
in the minds
In nations such
overseas customers,
of everyone
as Japan, that wheat
constantly
communicating with along the supply is milled into the
lour that goes into
them.
cakes, pastries and
It is an impressive
chain.
Asian-style noodles.
and ongoing effort.
In the Middle East,
From the time a
soft white wheat is ideally suited for
breeder irst begins work on a new
lat breads. No other wheat works as
wheat variety until that grain is
ultimately delivered to customers in well in those products.
It comes down to “understanding
Asia or elsewhere, the needs of the
customers are foremost in the minds what our customers want, what
is best-suited for their products,
of everyone along the supply chain.
and then using our knowledge and
In the Paciic Northwest, that
experience to translate that into
is illustrated by the actions of the
discrete, technical, well-deined
Washington, Oregon and Idaho
criteria we can measure and
commodity commissions. They
communicate with wheat breeders,”
work hand-in-glove with U.S.
Wheat Associates, the export market said Craig Morris, director of
the USDA Agricultural Research
development organization for the
Service Western Wheat Quality
nation’s wheat industry, and others
Laboratory. The quality — and
to stay in constant communication
suitability — of U.S. wheat is
with overseas customers to make
unquestioned by customers around
sure they are getting exactly what
the world.
they want.
Hats off to Paciic Northwest
For the region’s wheat growers,
wheat growers — and all the others
that is crucial. Between 80 and 90
up and down the supply line who
percent of the crop they grow each
work so hard to provide their
year is sold overseas.
customers with exactly the wheat
That did not happen by accident.
they want.
It happened by talking with
It is a business model that can
customers.
be held up as an example to all
From its ofices in Portland
segments of agriculture.
and Arlington, Va., U.S. Wheat
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
The know-nothing tide
O
n the evidence, ethnocentrism
really, he said that. To deny it would be
is a pretty basic human instinct.
“absolutely a total lie.”
Band together with your own.
I suppose Trump was thinking of
Keep the outsider down or out. In
the Normandy landings, or perhaps
the 1850s, at another moment of
the Marshall Plan, or Ronald Reagan’s
American unease, the Know-Nothings
“tear down this wall,” or the freeing of
swept Massachusetts and won
hundreds of millions of people from
mayoral elections in Philadelphia and
the totalitarian Soviet imperium, or the
Washington on a nativist platform to
opening to China.
Roger
“purify” national politics by stopping
American isolationism is an
Cohen
the inlux of Irish and German
oxymoron because America is a
Comment
Catholics.
universal idea. That does not change
Papist inluence was then the
however far short of its ideals the
perceived scourge through which the
nation may fall.
Know-Nothing movement, as the Native
On China, Trump has said: “We can
American Party (later the American Party)
both beneit or we can both go our separate
was commonly known, built its following.
ways.” Go our separate ways! Let’s unpack
Today the supposed threat
that. Right now America
is Muslim and Mexican
buys everything that China
iniltration. Or so Donald
makes, and China buys
Trump, the de facto
the U.S. debt incurred for
Republican presidential
all the spending sprees on
candidate, would have us
stuff from Guangzhou.
believe in his “America
Just because there may be
First” program.
separate ways into the gutter
A know-nothing tide
does not make the gutter
is upon us. Tribal politics,
any more alluring. Chinese-
anchored in tribal media,
American symbiosis is an
has made knowing nothing
existential issue.
a badge of honor. Ignorance,
As for Egypt, Trump
loudly declaimed, is an
believes America ousted
attribute, especially if
“a friendly regime” (of
allied to celebrity. Facts
the former dictator, Hosni
are dispensable baggage.
Mubarak) “that had a
To display knowledge, the
longstanding peace treaty
acquisition of which takes time, is tantamount with Israel.” No, Egypt has a peace treaty with
to showing too much respect for the
Israel. Mubarak did not.
opposition tribe, who know nothing anyway.
Speaking of Israel, Trump says, “President
Any slogan can be reworked, I guess.
Obama has not been a friend to Israel.” Right,
America First has a long, unhappy history,
he has not been a friend to the tune of more
the America First Committee having pressed
than $20.5 billion in foreign military inancing
the view that the United States should stay
since 2009. He has not been a friend by
out of the war to defeat Fascism in World
providing more than $1.3 billion for the Iron
War II. Its most famous advocate was Charles Dome defense system alone since 2011. He
Lindbergh, the aviator, who undermined the
has not been a friend by, in 2014, opposing
movement when he revealed that he blamed
18 resolutions in the U.N. General Assembly
Jews for prodding America toward war.
that were biased against Israel; by helping
That was in 1941, not a good year for Jews
to organize in 2015 the irst U.N. General
anywhere, particularly in Europe, where,
Assembly session on anti-Semitism in the
while Lindbergh opined, the annihilation of
history of the body; and by working tirelessly
Jewry had begun.
on a two-state peace, not least on the security
Well, America First is back, tweaked as
arrangements for Israel that are among its
Trump’s we-won’t-be-suckers-anymore
preconditions. He has not been a friend by
ideology. In his favor, it cannot be said
turning the other cheek in the face of what
that Trump has a stranglehold on political
Nancy Pelosi once called “the insult to the
stupidity. Britain is seriously debating leaving
intelligence of the United States” from Israel’s
the European Union, the greatest force for
prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
peace and stability in Europe since the carnage
The know-nothings are on the march. But
of the 1940s.
of course they must know something. Millions
One is put in mind of the remark of James
of people who vote for Trump cannot be
L. Petigru, a prominent jurist and politician,
wrong. Perhaps their core idea, along with
upon the secession of South Carolina from
the unchanging appeal of ethnocentrism, is
the Union in 1860: “South Carolina is too
that politics no longer really matter. Celebrity
small for a republic and too large for an insane matters.
asylum.”
Power centers are elsewhere — in inancial
Britain’s pathologies resemble South
systems, corporations, technology, networks
Carolina’s.
— that long since dispensed with borders.
Now where was I? Ah, yes, Trump,
That being the case, loudmouthed, isolationist
naturally. Trump, who has declared — or
trumpery may just be a sideshow, an American
perhaps it was only a suggestion — that “Our
exercise in après-moi-le-déluge escapism.
moments of greatest strength came when
■
politics ended at water’s edge.” Totally, he
Roger Cohen joined The New York Times
said that. Absolutely, he said that. Really,
in 1990.
The know-
nothings are
on the march.
But of course
they must know
something:
Celebrity
matters.
Making sense of new
minimum wage rules
The (Bend) Bulletin
O
regon’s new three-tier minimum
wage law is nothing if not
confusing. If all goes well,
however, rules on how the law will
work, which are being created by the
Bureau of Labor and
Industry, should make
things clearer.
While the law
raises the minimum
wage across the state,
it’s a tiered raise that
changes depending on
location, and it will
take six years to be
fully realized.
That makes sense.
If a person lives in Crook County, he’s
living in the region where the minimum
wage increase will eventually reach
$12.50 in 2022. The increase will be
higher in Deschutes County, $13.50 in
2022, and higher still in the Portland
metropolitan area, $14.75 in 2022.
It’s reasonable to pay according to
where someone works. Otherwise, it
could create odd situations of minimum
wage pay disparity in a region.
The rules are a bit trickier when a
person actually spends time working in
two different regions.
Thus, if a person works for a single
employer but spends part of his or her
time in Deschutes County and part of
it in Jefferson County, with its lower
minimum wage, the employer has two
choices. Without extra
record keeping, wages
can be paid at the rate
set for the higher wage
region. If the employer
wants to pay based on
where the employee is
actually working, he or
she must keep records
on time spent in each
region.
In the end, the law
might not bring the prosperity some
expect. Only about 5 percent of the
workforce makes the minimum, mostly
women 25 or younger and working part
time. Too, Oregon’s minimum wage
today has the same buying power as
1980’s $3.10 per hour minimum did.
While small increases apparently
have a relatively small impact on the
economy, no one knows for certain what
happens with bigger increases. We’re
about to ind out.
Only about
5 percent of
the workforce
makes
minimum wage.
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