THE MONTHLY BULLETIiST. ' 477 



the taxpaj'er, and the other was called the rent payer. He was just 

 hauling in a third one, which was labeled the common people. The 

 big fat man said: "I don't eat these eels— I just skin them and throw 

 them back into the water so they can grow new skins. They have got 

 used to it and don't mind it." Now, friends, that big, fat fellow 

 represents the speculative element in the dried fruit market business, 

 and the grower represents the eel, and they have been skinning us for 

 years and years, and they think we have got used to it and don't mind 

 it. They don't take all our money from us, but leave us enough to 

 manage to live on and get more fruit for them to get a chance at again 

 and thus make more money. The time has come to call a halt on that 

 kind of work. The dried fruit growers of the State are beginning to 

 wake up and call a halt. We do not propose to stand for it. We do 

 not expect that we are going to get very much larger prices for our 

 fruits through co-operation and organization than the growers on the 

 outside will be able to get for some years to come. We have a long, 

 hard fight ahead of us. We know that people who have been specu- 

 lating in the dried fruit products of California are not going to see that 

 business taken out of their hands without making a big fight for it. 

 We know that. We haven't gone into this business with our eyes 

 closed. Trouble is bound to come, and the problem will have to be 

 threshed out, and it will take time, but we are going to do it and stick 

 to it until we win, and we know we are going to win, just as certain as 

 we know the sun is going to shine tomorrow, because it is foimded upon 

 that broad principle of equity and justice that will benefit every fruit 

 man connected with the business, from buyer to consumer, and will 

 injure no one who rightfully belongs in the business. 



Chairman Cook. I do not, of course, like to disagree with Mr. 

 Stephens, but I must say I do think this subject of organization is the 

 most important subject thai can possibly come up in any fruit growers' 

 association. I believe that if the growers will organize, that Mr; 

 Stephens will be out of business, and won't need to worry over the 

 railroad tariff. Won't be any use for Mr. Stephens au}^ longer to worry 

 over the matter, because if they once organize the}^ will control the situ- 

 ation. I have lived in California, the southern part, the past eighteen 

 years, so you see I have grown up with the country, with California. I 

 became verj^ mucli interested in such meetings down there, and in every 

 one of those meetings this subject, organization, was brought up for 

 years, and you know these efforts created the California Fruit Exchange. 

 And now, gentlemen, if you do not want, at every one of our fruit 

 growers ' conventions, to hear such splendid addresses as we have heard 

 just now, then you want to vote now, because I propose at every fruit 

 convention to have such addresses, because we have got to wake our 

 people up about matters of this sort. So many farmers cannot do 

 business properly, haven't been brought up to do it, and are defrauded 

 every time. My friends, when the exchange had done eight million 

 dollars business they lost lour hundred dollars. I would like to see a 



