PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 145 



■every locality in the state of Michigan. A few men see the necessity of 

 organization. Tliey attempt it and a few more join them, and really 

 think, under the inspiration of the moment, they ought to be real honest 

 -and trust one another. They look into one another's faces and say, 

 " Here, we have lived together a good many years, and this man has 

 always been all right and the other man is all right," but the day it comes 

 to putting the fruit together, and trusting one man, who is equal to the 

 task, and paying him what he is worth, it seems like too much money to 

 give him. But the commission solicitor who has never seen our faces, 

 nor we his, nor have we heard of his firm — he may come to us and take 

 a hundred dollars' worth of fruit and we do not even take the pains to 

 go to Bradstreet and see what the man is worth or whether he is in 

 existence; and this and every other consigning vicinity is full of men 

 who have lost consignment after consignment by that very lack of 

 ordinary business prudence. 



Now, this can all be avoided. I have talked it so much that it seems 

 very stale, though I have not tried to say much about it the last few years; 

 but I do hope something may be done. There is a nucleus of organ- 

 izations in various parts of the state. By means of these organizations, 

 if the}^ are a success, the grower could demand facilities for transporta- 

 tion, and secure means of distribution which you have not now, and one 

 of the simplest ways is to take up this idea of uniformity of packages. 

 Make '' snide " packages so obnoxious that no man can stay with you and 

 use them, and then you can bring the buyers to you. There is no simpler 

 nor better way than that. 



Grand Rapids people have done this, until their commission men are 

 largely on the street they sell on. They return a new package to you 

 for the one in which you have your fruit, and you go back home with as 

 many empty boxes as you brought full of fruit, and a check in your 

 pocket. I will guarantee that in Grand Kapids, where the transportation 

 would naturally be higher than with us, their average profits were larger 

 than ours. Not only larger, but considerably larger, on the same pro- 

 duct, the last two years, simply because there was an organization there, 

 built out of the wre^^^s of three or four others. The growers are working 

 together and have secured some transportation facilities that we have not 

 yet thought of, by rail. Of course, they have no water. 



A state organization, such as Mr. Graham has suggested, would cer- 

 tainly be a useful thing, but I have an idea that it would take pretty 

 rapid work to get one into operation now, in time for this year's work. 

 It is not necessary to go into that in detail, but I wish to make that 

 suggestion. This uniformity of packages is a necessity. We have a 

 law, and two firms have been mentioned as signifying their intention not 

 to comply. If you had a strong organization and 3'ou would say, " We 

 buy of so and so, because they comply with the law, and Wells-Higman 

 have refused to do so," you would not have to go through the supreme 

 court. There is an easier way than that. They would mark their pack- 

 ages. My idea would be, if these two men have declared themselves 

 in that manner, that every fruitgrower who means to do right should 

 say to these people, " We won't touch your packages, because we have 

 other ideas." 



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