FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 87 



retailer and then in half bushels, pecks and quarts to the consumer, 

 bearing at every step a curse upon the business we have at heart and 

 destroying confidence in a multitude of homes. This is just the point — 

 The evil does not lie in the loss to the man who packed it. If he 

 would lose every dollar he possessed, it would be a cause for thanks- 

 giving- — the more he loses, the better. But the evil lies in the damage 

 done to the whole industry, including those four square growers and 

 dealers who believe in giving an honest deal. 



Don't be misled. If the other fellow — your neighbor — raises, packs 

 and ships "junk," he is injuring you, no matter how well you pack. 

 Never was there a more mistaken notion that it didn't matter what 

 the other fellow did as long as you were all right. It has led to more 

 evil and more temporizing with wrong doing than anything of which 

 I know. Just so sure as the sun rises, the poor fruit brings the good 

 down toward its level rather than the reverse. The man who packs 

 good fruit gets a greater reward, — that is true, but not nearly in pro- 

 portion to what he ought to get or would get if the "junk" were kept 

 out of every barrel. When a year comes along when the quality is 

 generally poor and the packing as a consequence is worse than wretched, 

 when crops are large and packing indifferent and markets go to pieces 

 as a result, the innocent suffer with the guilty. "The rain falls on 

 the just and the unjust." And while the dishonest packer may drown 

 in the torrent, yet the honest one many times has a stiff time reach- 

 ing the shore. 



You are, therefore, your "brother's keeper." Make no mistake about 

 it. It is an act of self-preservation. I hope the time will come when 

 associations like this will make it a point to see that the man who per- 

 sistently violates the common sense rules of packing, rules which busi- 

 ness sense teaches to be wise, either changes his methods or gets out 

 of the business, and I don't care whether he is a grower or a dealer. 



I said a little while back that faith or confidence was the basis of 

 commercial prosperity and development. There is no mystery about 

 it. It is just plain common sense and ordinary business intelligence. 

 People resent being imposed upon. To cheat them is to arouse a bitter 

 and justifiable hatred. When the consumer places on the counter good 

 money, worth one hundred cents on the dollar, he has a moral and 

 legal right to expect in return a commodity worth one hundred cents 

 on the dollar. If he doesn't get it, there is trouble. He settles these 

 questions beyond our poor power to change. He settles them so effect- 

 ually that business enterprises are ruined, markets destroyed and enor- 

 mous loses created. For, gentlemen, the consumer must be pleased. He is 

 the court of last resort. The only way he can be pleased is by giving 

 him a square deal and value received. If he doesn't get them he goes 

 back on the commodity and it is then too late to win him over. He 

 refuses to be won. It matters not what we may call him or how much 

 we may wriggle and twist and blame everyone and everything for our 

 sorry plight, from an eclipse of the sun to Hindoo magic, there he 

 stands the same old Gibraltar. We must please the consumer; we 

 must deliver the goods; we must "make good." The time has come to 

 absolutely destroy root and branch every element of dishonesty, sharp 

 practice and ignorance in the packing of apples. The time has come 



