WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 183 



the trouble of which Mr. Hinman spoke, by sending a car through without 

 change at Holland. (But Mr. Hinman observed the fault at Grand Haven, 

 the fruit not being bound to or through Holland). We try to have all the 

 help necessary and make constant eiforts to prevent bad handling, but some- 

 times the rush of fruit is too great and unexpected. I know of no delays in 

 forwarding fruit when loaded. 



This was a luckless expression on Mr. Angell's part, for it brought John 

 P. Wade to his feet with a declaration that he knew of a shipment of peaches 

 made from Fennville by the American Express Company, on a certain Wed- 

 nesday, which did not gpt upon South Water street till the following Friday. 



*'I deny it I I deny it !" angrily retorted Mr. Angell. 



But Mr. Willard Wade arose and quietly but with firmness said the fruit 

 referred to was his own, and that he saw it come upon the street at two 

 o'clock in the afternoon of Friday. 



Mr. Angell had nothing further to say. 



W. A. Smith : Under any system some such complaints as these are sure 

 to come. The express company probably does the best it can. We have no 

 quarrel with it. We must organize and arrange with the railway company 

 for rates that we can afford to pay and yet the railway have the margin of 

 profit which is its due. We of Benton Harbor have secured rates by rail to 

 Minneapolis and St. Paul which were but little more than we have to pay 

 merely for carriage by boat across the lake to Chicago. Only organize and 

 you will get from the railway managers the same rates of the express cogi- 

 pany. Joseph Lannin read a constitution and by-laws prepared for a Fenn- 

 ville fruit shippers' association. 



R. Morrill moved for appointment of a committee of three to consider this 

 matter and report at the evening session. 



The motion prevailing, the committe was composed of Messrs. J. P. Wade, 

 John H. Crane and Alexander Hamilton. 



Resuming attention to the programme after discussion of the transporta- 

 tion question, the society listened to reading of the following paper, by W. A. 

 Smith of Benton Harbor, on 



TRUSTS AND THEIR RELA.T10N TO HORTICULTURE. 



A trust may be denominated as an ingenious device by which the rich are 

 made richer and the poor are made poorer. The ultimate aim and object of 

 the whole trust business is to enhance the cost of the necessaries and com- 

 forts of life to the consumer. ; 



The first effort of a trust is to limit production ; tjie next, to break down 

 competition. When these two efforts are attained, it has the monopoly of the 

 market, and the consumer is at the mercy of a greedy and unscrupulous com- 

 bination of money sharks. 



The consumer stands at the bottom and *' pays the freight" on everything, 

 whether put upon the market by a trust or syndicate, or in a legitimate com- 

 mercial traffic. 



To limit production, whether of the necessaries or comforts of life, simply 

 means to increase their cost to the consumer and enhance the profit to the 

 dealer. % 



Corporations, it is said, have no souls, and some men, without the ['aid of 

 corporate influence, have no souls. Money always is power, and the greater 



