56 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



serves me right, stating in plain terms, that the produce commission men 

 of Chicago, and the National League of commission men were banded 

 together against the interests of the producer. That is my recollection. 

 Reference was made 3'esterday to a letter from the president of the 

 National League of commission merchants. In the discussion it was 

 claimed that that letter pledged that organization to oppose such 

 legislation; at least, the construction given to the letter was that th(3 

 organization would work against such legislation. Now then, in the 

 absence of the recognized head, I champion the cause of the National 

 League of commission merchants, in order that no stain shall rest upon 

 250 men who are absent. * * * * j jielped in the organ- 

 ization. The first president was Walter Phelps of New York; the second 

 president I had the honor to be. Disability on the part of the president 

 the first year made me practically the executive officer. I watched it, 

 followed its course throughout, and I say to you that not one single 

 charge of dishonesty has been proven against a single member of the 

 organization. We stand ready to meet every charge backed up with 

 reasonable proof, and any man who can not show a clean record is shown 

 the door so quick that he doesn't know what hit him. We stand on that 

 platform today. The interests of the producer and the commission mer- 

 chant are identical. The honest commission merchant must live by these 

 shipments that he receives, so far as they will go. In this day and age 

 of the world we must supplement that by merchandising. There are men 

 here who sell by the car-load to commission merchants, and they must 

 merchandise during five months of the j^ear or they would starve to death. 

 They accumulate — this is the statement. True, they do. A man who is 

 in business thirty years ought to accumulate some thousands; but I say 

 to you that today there is not profit enough in it to induce a man to go 

 into the commission business if he was out of it, if he had experience and 

 knew just what there was in it. The p(\ach crop of last year has been th(? 

 sore spot, and justly so, with the men who grew it. I do not minimize 

 their efforts, I do not belittle their work, I do not slight the endeavors 

 they have put forth to produce something that shall bring them some- 

 thing to live on until another crop; but the actual money received b}' the 

 reputable commission merchant for h.andling that crop of peaches did 

 not pay current expenses. While the remark may be made, "you are no 

 worse off than other people, because we didn't get anything", still, in 

 order to properly handle the business we must secure expensive locations, 

 we must hire expensive help; we could not discharge those men, we could 

 not vacate that store; with a dropping off of the receipts, our expenses 

 would have to go on, and I know of at least one house, and I believe there 

 were others, last year, that were handling the peach and apple crop, 

 which was so disastrous to the state of Michigan, who lost thousands of 

 dollars in the simple matter of expenses. Sell apples at sixty cents per 

 barrel — what is there in it? Only six cents, if you get your full ten per 

 cent, commission. That is all, and you can not put a barrel of apples into 

 the house and take it out for six cents; it is simply an impossibility. Nine 

 cents per basket for grapes! Nine tenths of a cent, if you please. Three 

 per cent, of that, which is the invariable rule, I believe, goes to local 

 agents or others, or rebates to societies. After an experience of thirty 

 years on the market in Chicago I do not know of ten men who have 

 retired on a competence, who have had the respect of the community. 

 The great profits in the commission business are not so apparent. I have 



