Winter Meeting. 213 



bond, avoiding the possibility of graft, that has already entered into 

 and destroyed many good industrial organizations. I do not mean 

 a co-operation with a handle to it ; with a Self-constituted manage- 

 ment or executive head, where the head fattens at the expense of 

 the body, and, while no benefit obtains to the whole justifies its con- 

 tinuation of management upon the theory that if the whole is de- 

 riving no better prices they are doing as well as before, and should 

 continue the questionable rebate system which provides good fat 

 berths and accumulation of unnecessary surplus as far as the man- 

 agement of extended co-operation is concerned. I would recom- 

 mend that the National Apple Growers' Congress, which is now well 

 organized with a strong membership in more than twenty states 

 and Canada, take up the organization of local congresses, and 

 wherever fruit growers' associations are already organized, frater- 

 nize them into the general body in every apple growing section of 

 every apple growing state, as is being done by the cotton growers 

 and producers or manufacturers of other products throughout the 

 country. I would further recommend, in working out the detail of 

 successful marketing of our apple crop, that steps be taken at once 

 to bring the grower and consumer closer together. This is not to 

 be done with the idea of encroaching upon, or injuring any other 

 line of business or injuring any other trade, but in self -protection of 

 our own interest and securing to us the just share of the proceeds 

 of our labor to which we are entitled. This can partially be ac- 

 complished in several ways: In securing legislation that will re- 

 move at least half the freight charges from Missouri to Texas 

 points, which this season in many instances were more than the 

 fruit brought at loading station, from between the producer and 

 consumer. In assuming control of the markets of the larger cities by 

 regulating the price to the consumer, either through the wholesale 

 produce trade or establishing apple depots, where the consumer 

 can come direct and get his apples at a price that will pay the 

 grower a profit, at the same time placing the apples within the reach 

 of all. I desire here to affirm that the apple crop of 1906 could and 

 would have been consumed at $1.25 per barrel to the grower for 

 No. 1 apples, picked on the table, if consumption had not been de- 

 stroyed by the retail merchants. To illustrate, when in St. Louis 

 last August attending the National Apple Growers' Congress, the 

 retail merchants could buy apples by the barrel on Third St. at $2.00 

 to $2,25. They were retailing these same apples at 40 cents per 

 peck, or $4.80 per barrel. The effect of this is at once apparent. It 

 destroyed consumption, made the fruit a luxury to the masses 



