506 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



tion that comes to them regarding the products they deal in. To have 

 Associated Press dispatches in all the daily papers througliout the coun- 

 try, so that all traveling salesmen, representatives of every jobbing 

 house in the country, calling on a hundred and fifty thousand retail 

 and wholesale grocery stores, can, with their breakfast, have in their 

 morning paper a report of what was done here in raisins and dried fruit 

 the day before, would be of immense value to our raisin and dried fruit 

 industries. Everybody would be interested and watching the paper to 

 see the latest developments. 



We are very enthusiastic over this raisin exchange proposition. As 

 stated before, it requires no signing up, and only a membership fee of 

 ten dollars to join. We firmly believe we can accomplish all we have 

 set out to do by using the different methods previously employed by 

 various exchanges and other organizations throughout the country, 

 which they have used so successfully. We are trying to bring the grow- 

 ers and business men together, and to get them on some footing where 

 they will understand each other and work together. Most business men 

 in this State haven 't yet awakened- to the fact that, by organization of 

 fruit growers, they, themselves, as merchants, could get better prices 

 and put their business on a sounder basis. 



The object of both our exchange and our million-dollar company is 

 to cause a steady, regular price, so that raisins cannot go below a certain 

 price fair to the growers. The way things are now, the growers, with 

 their expenses in raising and marketing their products, are not making 

 enough to pay living expenses, and many are rooting out their vines and 

 planting the land to alfalfa, which insures them quick cash and a good 

 profit, while raisins do not. This exchange is to be a place where 

 raisins can be bought and sold at auction, something the way com and 

 cotton, also grain and other similar products, are sold. To operate such 

 an exchange here, and control it for the benefit of the fruit industry, 

 the raisin industry, would benefit the whole community, but it is neces- 

 sary to keep the control of it in the hands of the growers or their friends 

 until the business is firmly established and confidence is established. 



It has been stated that every dollar the grower deposits in bank is 

 checked against five times before it goes out. That is to say, each dollar 

 that the grower makes by the increased raise of prices for his goods, 

 makes five profits for five different concerns before it leaves the country 

 and goes off East. It is, therefore, for the great benefit of all business 

 men to help the growers. 



Professor Bioletti was right this morning when he said that at present 

 prices the raisin grower had better give away his vineyard and work 

 for the man he gave it to. But this can all be avoided if you will organ- 

 ize, standardize, and put the industry on a solid basis. Vineyardists 

 don't want to make immense profits— just enough to pay expenses and 

 have a little over, and surely that is not too much to expect. 



Dr. Powell told us last night about how the women of Italy carry 

 their lemons and other products in huge baskets on their heads ; that is, 



