THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 479 



through that company when it was ready for market. Well he had 

 shipped his stuff from here for years, and he had lost. You see he had 

 a crop of late peaches, and he always lost, year after year, so this year 

 he went to the manager of the company and he said, ' ' I find I can sell 

 my peaches at so much a ton outside. Now I would like to do that. I 

 have shipped them with you for two or three years and have lost. ' ' The 

 manager said, "You have got to ship those peaches with us ; you agreed 

 to do it, and if you do not, we will put a man in your orchard and pack 

 and ship them and charge the expense up to you. ' ' The grower said, ' ' I 

 will turn over the receipts to you, every cent I make on the peaches." 

 "No, we are going to have those peaches and you have got to pack them, 

 or else we will for you." And do you know, that man had to do it. 

 That is the way some of our growers are handicapped here on deciduous 

 fruit products, but they must be induced to come together in some way 

 and organize into a co-operative association, like the Southern California 

 Fruit Exchange, and then they would be masters of the situation. I 

 wish to say, Mr. Chairman, that I am in hearty accord with the senti- 

 ments expressed by Mr. Dargitz and by you, and it would be a solution 

 of this proposition, but we have got to have some sort of relief now. at 

 once. The great impediment to the success in building up California 

 is the Southern Pacific Railroad; I am not afraid to say it, either- 

 many a man is, however. They come and' pat me on the shoulder and 

 tell ilie to go ahead, but they dare not do it themselves. That is the situ- 

 ation with us ; that is what is holding this part of the country down all 

 the time, as I tried to tell and explain to you yesterday. Look at the 

 tariff ; look at the revenue ; they demand 50 per cent of the whole charge 

 the Western Pacific receives for switching — that is, for hauling. Now 

 the Western Pacific is ambitious to get business, and they send their 

 agents out, their freight agents, and they go out and talk to us and to 

 every jobber, and they come and say, "We want your business, we want 

 you to ship with us, ' ' and they are exerting every effort possible to get 

 the growers to patronize them. During the car shortage ttiis season, of 

 course, there was lots of freight hauled to and from the packing-houses. 

 Everybody wanted cars. I tried to procure some, but they Avere short. 

 A certain per cent went to Tassajara ; some shippers there had been 

 routing over the Southern Pacific, but on account of the shortage, some 

 tars were routed over the Western Pacific. Well, the superintendent 

 went right up there the next day, and he said, "This is not fair treat- 

 ment ; we have strained every effort to provide cars for you. There is 

 a big demand for all the cars you used, and a great deal more in other 

 localities in the south, and we have favored you, benefited you ; we have 

 considered you and we have given you your pro rata, and now you are 

 shipping by Western Pacific. Is that right ? ' ' The result was, the next 

 day the Western Pacific didn't get a single car. In talking with one of 

 the officials, he said about that matter, "Do you know, Mr. Stephens, we 

 liauled six hundred of those ears for the growers of California ? ' ' Now 

 that is the method they use with us, and I do hope that every grower 

 here, that every man that is interested, will have the courage and man- 



