PKOC'KKDINGS OF Till'. SUMMKK MKKTING 61 



lionost, and look ailcr the solvency of cvcrv business man? 1 am con- 

 nected at home willi a hnsiniss inslilnlion outside of niv faiin opera- 

 tions, that lost ten thousand dollars lasl vear, in had accounts, a manu- 

 facturing institution. We received orders, we sold the goods, we looked 

 np the ])ni'chasers in llu^ conmiei-cial rejxjrts, hut bi fore the bills liad 

 been jiaid they failed and our concern lost |1(),(M)(). Why not include 

 such — have a commissioner to look after the solvency of such people? 

 Then, again, your banking conunissiontr does not ])relend to look after 

 the individual deposits and accounts and business deals of the indi- 

 vidual depositors and }»atrons of the bank in any sense. If I go to a 

 bank and ask for a loan, and offer to put up certain collateral or certain 

 endorsements, and the bank refuses to accei)t it, and from my inability 

 to obtain that loan I fail in business, can I go to the United States 

 congress or banking commissioner and ask for redress? Not at all. 

 Think of this a moment before we place ourselves on record as advo- 

 cating the enactment of a resolution for the appointment of a commis- 

 sioner. Let us look at it in a practical light. Suppose I should ship, 

 as the poor man did, ten cases of berries to Chicago to a commission man. 

 They go in there with ten hundred thousand more cases, good, bad, and 

 indifferent. I do not get sufficient returns to satisfy me. I enter my 

 complaint to this commissioner. How many complaints would there 

 be entered this w^eek on account of the slump in the Chicago market last 

 week? Is there a grower or a shipper in the state of Michigan who would 

 not have entered a complaint? Is there one single man who would not 

 have entered a complaint to this commissioner? How many commis- 

 sioners w'ould you need in the city of Chicago, how many hundred com- 

 missioners? How many thousand commissioners in the whole country 

 would you need to look after these individual cases and look up the 

 purchaser of an article, how^ much he paid for it, the condition in w^hich 

 he found it, and so on? Every towm in the United States would want 

 a commissioner. Think of it a little before we go into this matter; 

 let us look at it in a practical light. I believe it is the fault of the 

 shipper himself when he is beaten, in nine cases out of ten. There are 

 dishonest commission men, there are dishonest growers, there are dis- 

 honest men in every walk of life; but they are in the minority. Last 

 year there were some people in the city of Detroit who were soliciting 

 consignments of fruit by advertising. I got daily cards from those 

 people during almost the entire shipping season, offering the very great- 

 est inducements — great prices, good sales, their ability and facilities 

 for getting rid of fruit were superior to those of any one else. I had had 

 too much ex])erience to be caught. I did not send them any fruit, and 

 I did not reply to them in any way; but I know some poor people who did. 

 some people who needed every dollar they could get for their fruit, 

 who were caught b}' these things and who did ship them some fruit, 

 and they ncA-er got anything for it. That was sini]>ly ])0()r business 

 ability — nothing more nor less. 



A Member: Suppose there had been a commissioner at that time who 

 had seen what you saw there, could not that have been j)r(nented? 



Mr. Graham: No, sir. It is sim])ly ])rivate business. I have a right 

 to advertise, and all the laws on earth can not prevent it. If I advertise 

 that I am in a position to handle fruit to the very best advantage, 

 that my facilities for getting good }»rices for fruit are superior, and 



