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Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 277, 17 August 1921, Page 6

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HARD TIMES IN THE STATES LOSS OF EXPORT TRADE ADMITTED THE JAPANESE QUESTION Among the passengers from San Francisco yesterday by the Marama were Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., Mrs., and Miss Wilford, of Wellington. Mr. Wilford, who has been staying for a month in Los Angeles, had much of interest to relate about American affairs. On the voyage to San Francisco a call was made at Papeete (Tahiti). Tho affairs of that French colony were found to be in an almost parlous condition, due in the main to the failure of the markets for copra and pearl shell —its chief products —on which the prosperity of the Government, the planters, and natives depend. Pearl shell was absolutely unsaleable, and copra had fallen from £75 to £l5 per ton. As the result of this collapse there were fifteen copra-carrying schooners tied up to the wharves at Papeete. Buying Dollars

At San Francisco —the cleanest city Mr. Wilford has ever seen —he found the place affected by financial world conditions: it was suffering from the -high cost of production and lack of customers. Whilst it was bad enough for residents, they as New Zealanders, had to buy dollars. Whilst they were in California the exchange rate for tho English pound .(£1) fell from 3.72 dollars to 3.50 dollars. All they could get for a New Zealand pound, was 3.40 dollars. So, literal y, was a case of buying dollars Millen, the new Secretary of the Harding Cabinet, had made a statement to the effect that for the year up till June America had lost 3,000.000,000 dollars in export trade, which Hoover ascribed to the bankrupt state of Europe, and the impossibility of other outside countries buying owing to the rate of exchange. S that while America held the largest amount of gold in the world the remarkable spectacle was presented of its losins 3,000,000,000 dollars a year through the collapse in its export trade. Hoover also stated that out of every dollar raised in taxation 7 cents (out ot the 100) were left for administration pur poses after meeting the ordinary Federal Labilities, and that unless expenditure were decreased in all departments and other avenues taxation must increase. Before the war taxation as a burden wa unknown in America; to-day ei eiy thi g was taxed right down to ice-creams. 3 ost ■people who owned anything had to pay a county tax, a State tax, a Federal t.ix. the ordinary Government income tax Thera was a 2000 dollars exemption on the income tax and another 200 dollars for each child under 16 years of ace. This state of things, with the high tfhmes ruling, had sent, %\p rxiilvay P a senger and freight rates to the skiea An English traveller whom Mt. Wilford met at Los Angelesi informed him that it had cost him at the rate of £8 (En per day to cross the States. as the result o y f the high cost of transit many thousands of railway wagons an passenger cars were lying idle on the On Ck the Pennsylvanian- railroads alone there were said to be 2600 wagons out of commission in June.

Blow to Citrous Fruit Trade. In Southern California the growing of citrous fruits— oranges, lemons and cl - rons—amounts to a staple industry, but the freight rates were so extremely high (said Mr. Wilford) that it did not pay to forward the fruit to New York or any of the eastern centres. As matters stood the Californian growers could not compete with Italy in lemons or.citrons, and Congress was considering the p - in- nf a duty on such fruit importations from Europe, without which tic industry was dead. Out of Los Angeles Mr wilford drove on one occasion though W miles of orange, lemon, and citron groves. On every hand was witnessed the injunction "Bdp jourselve but do not break the tree*. m one field they saw laid out enough oranges to fill 400 railway wagons, lhe wag . in America were twice, as big as those in New Zealand. These oranges had simply been dumped into a field, and from a distance looked like a meadow of Cali fornian poppies. The low steamer freight rates from Italy had cut the trade right out, and all growers and canneries were up against it. 1300 Idle Steamers. Ships were idle everywhere In San snips ihoro were 78 steamers Francisco alone tncie tied up indefinitely, and figures in Con gress in June stated that there were fsoo vessels lying idle in American port. That accounted in a measure t diminished consumption of oil, as many of those vessels were oil-burnin stea eL At the end of its financial year the Merchants’ Association stated that much more petrol had been produced than had been consumed, and there weie large quantities in store. Price of Petrol. Mr Wilford said that prior to ■ eav ‘ n f’ Wellington for San Francisco he-had imported 20 cases of petrol, tho lande cost of which was £22 18s. 9d., a= against £O3 for the previous shipment. As a matter of fact the production of petrol was on a greater scale than .«5 as h Shell people, who were fighting the bran dard Oil Trust, had sunk wells eveiywhere and were turning oil out in very large quantities. The price of petrol in los Angeles was 25 cents (about Is.) per gallon Mr. Wilford is of the opinion Something should'be done tc, bring the price of petrol in New Zealand down to a reasonable level. Mr. and Mrs. Wilford lived m Los Angeles for a month. They took a thieeroomed furnished cottage and had to pay 100 dollars a month for it. Los Angeles was the wonder city of California It had a population of 7a0,000, and its population during the last twelve months increased by 93,000-wat was to say, it added another Wellington to its. population in a year. He went to the City Hall to ascertain the number of buildi ° permits issued ita the six months ended Juno 30. The number was 14,0-0, ot which 5004, were for dwelling houses. Hie prosperity of the city was due to—(1) Its wonderful climate, (2) its cheap timber, and (3) the fact that £30,000,000 worth of film portrayed its beautiful spots throughout the world without the cost of a penny to the city The place was bathed in sunshine from February to November. Its motor-car traffic was said to be the thickest in the world. Whether this was so he did not know, but it was on record that there wore 1370 motor accidents duiing tho first five months of the year. On the other hand there wore 7300 cases ot criminal offences in twelve months. Shootings and hold-ups were common, and during the first week ho was in T.os Angelos five women were awaiting trial for murder. As to Prohibition. v Mr. Wilford said it was too early yat to decide the effect of prohibition. On this question he had come to three conclusions i—(1) That the real effect of prohibition would not be seen until the private stores of liquor were used up. (2) That saloons and spirits wore, gone for all time; and (3) That light wines and light beer would eventually be permitted. One of the extraordinary effects of upholding the prohibition laws was that tho judicial business of the. country had been blocked. There were not enough Judges to go round. It San Francisco

alona they were 4000 cases behind, and applications were being made for more Judges to deal with these cases. Most of the cases were the result of raids on places where liquor had been seized. On the day he left it was reported that someone had got .into the store where all the seized liquor was kept, and had altered all tho tags on them, which would certainly complicate matters when the cases went before the Court! The Japanese Question. The Japanese question loomed largo everywhere in tho States, and the papers were full of it, pro and con. Tho disarmament conference 'had met with general approval. He could not help feeling that, like the sun in the sky, the Pacific Ocean was made as a world asset, and not for any one nation. The world’s motto to-day should be "Service, not slaughter.” In the Western States the Japanese question was one of vital importance. In California it was Geo. Shima, a Japanese, who had fixed the price of potatoes. In the Imperial Valley the Japanese practically held complete domination, whilst in the fruit markets and in the production of vegetables they might bo said to have cornered everything. At a place called Turloch the white population rose, and expelled the Japanese settlers —shipped them away somewhere by rail —but the American Government got to work and arrested the offenders, and most of the Japanese returned to the'district. The tension in feeling was very high. Wage-cutting. In many industries wage-cutting was going on, and in some cases employees were readily accepting 15 to 20 per cent, reductions, following on the announcement that there were from two to three millions unemployed in the States. Booth, of tho American Salvation Army, reporter! that the outlook for the coming winter was the gloomiest on record. 'Talking to bankers, fruit producers, and merchants, Mr. Wilford found that they were not losing-heart, but were putting their backs into the task of readjusting conditions. Everywhere he found, a spirit, of understanding. The conditions, all admitted, were difficult, but all seemed hopeful, and held that ultimately things would come right. Restriction of Immigration. Immigration to the United States was a problem. It was being dealt with in a novel manner. Each country was 'being allowed to send only a certain number of immigrants to the States. He believed New Zealand’s allocation was four a monTli. or fifty a year. One well-to-do passenger who went up in the Tahiti with the intention of settling in America was held on the ship at ’Frisco until the authorities inquired about the tally from Washington. She was very indignant, lie supposed that Now Zealand’s allotment of fifty a year was part of the allocation for the British Empire. America had to do something of the kind, as she was getting immigrants at the rate of 1,000,000 a year, and with millions unemployed in the country the flood of humanity had to be stemmed. The Imperial Conference excited great interest in America, and reports of its deliberations were featured in the papers. The fact that the Dominions had a -voice In the proceedings excited particular comment, Mr. Wilford, however, had a grievance, and that was that whilst Messrs. Hughes and Smuts were reported freely, the New Zealand delegate’s views were not recorded. No New Zealand news ever appeared in the newsI -apers, and in tho course of an interest- : fug chat with the editor of the "Los I Angeles Times”—a pro-British paper—he found him entirely ignorant of New Zealand and its affairs.