March, 1920 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 15 



"Sixty Cents a Can for Bartlett Pears" 



By Frank T. Swett of the California Pear Growers' Association 



"Sixty cents for a can of Bartlett 

 pears. Good night!" So said Jones to 

 the grocery clerk. '|What's the idea? 

 I used to buy the same brand for 

 thirty." 



Jones is a successful business man of 

 San Francisco. Mrs. Jones has 'phoned 

 his olhce that afternoon, "Company for 

 supper; we haven't a bit of fruit in the 

 apartment; it's too late to order; now, 

 Dearie, call in at Goldberg'?Bowen gro- 

 cery and bring home a can of nice Bart- 

 lett pears." 



Jones is a man who wants to be 

 shown. He asked the clerk "What's the 

 reason of this raise?" 



"Why, Mr. Jones, don't you read the 

 papers? Senator Browne of Los An- 

 geles, Mrs. Cleverdon of Berkeley, Sec- 

 retary Connelly of the Grocers' Associa- 

 tion, and a whole bunch of mayors are 

 agreed that the farmers are profiteering 

 on us city guys; and wicked Weinstock 

 has organized them into terrible trusts 

 to sting the consumer!" 



"Believe me," said Jones, "I'm going 

 to investigate," as he jumped into his 

 Pierce-.\rrow and sped home to the 

 apartment. 



The next day he talked with a banker 

 on that painfully popular theme, High 

 Cost of Living. 



"Inflated currency, diminishing dol- 

 lar, excessive demand for all foods, re- 

 stricted production of commodities due 

 to the strike habit — the customary af- 

 termath of all big wars," said the 

 banker. "Mark Sullivan said it in Col- 

 liers Weekly in his remark that the 

 'dollar should be renamed and desig- 

 nated a "dollarette." ' Vfe've all trad- 

 ing in fifty-cent dollars. Now, Jones, 

 your sixty-cent can of pears is really 

 a merely old-fashioned thirty cents. 



"This is too abstract for me," said 

 Jones. So he asked a prominent canner 

 who recently announced in a financial 

 letter to the press that canners had all 

 made phenomenal profits this season; 

 but now that it had all been sold the 

 price was really too high and that the 

 remedy next year would be to pay the 

 fruit growers less for their fruit. 

 "Growers must not expect such exorbi- 

 tant prices next season." The canner 

 told Jones all about higher cannery la- 

 bor costs, etc., but said nothing about 

 higher costs on the farm. 



But Jones was thorough. He had been 

 told at second hand, about farmers' 

 combinations. He wanted to beard one 

 in its den. He bravely ventured into 

 the office of the Pear Growers' Associa- 

 tion. 



The retailer had passed the buck to 

 the "farmers' combine"; the canner had 

 followed suit. The mayor and super- 

 visors of the city that presents gold 

 plates to the Irish president had em- 

 phatically berated the far-off farmer. 

 Was this solution correct? 



Secretary Hamilton was at his desk. 

 Said Jones, "I'm going to ask some im- 

 portant questions. While I'm making 

 double the money I used to, it takes it 

 about all to live comfortably. Shoes, 



clothes, nurses, housemaids, rent, thea- 

 ter tickets, all have gone up; and it's 

 most aggravating to have to pay more 

 for food." 



"Why did the grocer charge me sixty 

 cents for those pears? Why don't your 

 association sell the fruit cheaper to the 

 canner? I'm afraid the growers are 

 profiteering. Defend yourself if you 

 can!" 



"All right," said the secretary. "Let's 

 analyze your sixty cents." "WTien you 

 paid, you laid on the counter a four- 

 bit piece and a dime. What did the 

 grower get from the four-bit piece? Not 

 one penny! The grower got the dime. 

 Out of that dime he paid for a whole 

 year's work in the orchard, taxes, irri- 

 gation, spraying, plowing, tractors, 

 compensation insurance, spray materi- 

 als, distillate, housing for employees. 



"The owner and his family lived and 

 worked on only four pennies of your 

 dime. Six cents he paid out for em- 

 ployees and orchard expense. 



"If the philanthropic grower could 

 afford to work for nothing and board 

 himself, then pears might sell four 

 cents cheaper, or fifty-six cents. Now- 

 Mr. Jones, if you are looking for profit- 

 eering, will you seek it in the grower's 

 four cents, or in the other fifty-six 

 cents? Without your dime, production 

 would stop short." 



"You surprise me," responded Jones. 

 "I can hardly credit your data." 



"Here are the facts," said Hamilton. 

 "The Association sold 14,000 tons to 

 canners at .?85 a ton. A ton will make 

 from .37 to 40 cases of canned pears, or 

 considerably more than 850 cans. At 

 10 cents a can this is .fSS." 



"The deuce you say," said Jones. "1 

 don't begrudge the dime, for I realize 

 the production must continue. But 

 where did my four-bits go?" 



"That went for canners' boxes, 

 freight, stevedores, deck hands, coal 

 miners, oil men, draymen, cold storage 

 in cannery, wages that are three times 

 as high as formerly, in high freight 

 rates on sugar, perhaps hauled in the 

 ships that made Mayor Rolph a million- 

 aire, for tin and labels and cannery 

 cases, higher wages in lumber camps, 

 rent, clerk hire and delivery for the re- 

 tailer. 



"The canner sold the case of 24 cans 

 for $8.50. WTien retailed the same case 

 cost consumers .?14.40. Each can car- 

 ried a burden of 25 cents in its trip 

 from the canner's warehouse to the 

 consumer, or a total of $6. When the 

 grocer took your can from the shelf and 

 handed it over the counter, his 20 per 

 cent earned in two minutes, cost you 

 twelve cents, more than the original 

 grower's price on the pears." 



"Robbers," said Jones. "Wait," said 

 Hamilton, "doesn't Mrs. Jones usually 

 telephone the store and have goods de- 

 livered at your apartment and charged? 

 The grocer's price is set according to 

 customary expense and not by the ex- 

 ceptional occasions when patrons pay 

 cash and carry home. The grocer is 



JEST SERVICE- 

 ALlTYa PRl 



PERFECTION IN 



FRUIT 



^?:"^^. 



1423-24 NORTHWESTERN BANK BLDG. 

 PORTLAND.ORECON. 



E.Shelley Morgan 



NORTH WESTER N MANAGER 



WE CARRY -AND CAN SHIP IN 24.J 



HOURS -STOCK LABELS FOR PEARS. 



^|kpPLES,CHERRIES a STRAWBERRIES; I 



lucky if he nets 4 per cent after all ex- 

 penses are paid." 



"Just one more question," said Jones. 

 "How about the expense of this Asso- 

 ciation; isn't it just one more expense 

 between producer and consumer? \Miat 

 does this cost, and who pays it?" 



"It came out of your dime," said 

 Hamilton. "In 1919 the business of 450 

 growers, producing about half the pears 

 of California, was handled at an avera- 

 age cost, not of 20 per cent, not of 10 

 per cent, nor of 5 per cent; but the al- 

 most microscopic and infinitesmally 

 small charge of two-thirds of one per 

 cent on the growers' whole output. 



"Canners used to have scores of buy- 

 ers in the field at an expense of $1.50 

 to $2.50 a ton for the fruit purchased. 

 This needless expense is practically 

 eliminated. One man, the manager of 

 the Association, does all the selling, at 

 minimum expense. 



"And furthermore, out of the Associa- 

 tion charge to growers of ninety cents 

 a ton on the canned pears, there is pro- 

 vision for inspection, shipment, billing, 

 collection, and remitting the grower, 

 and included also adequate financial 

 insurance. This is credit indemnity in- 

 surance. Should a cannery fail to pay 

 the Association, the American Credit 

 Indemnity Company pays, just like fire 

 insurance." 



"You astonish me," said Jones. How 

 do you get by so cheap?" 



"Because this is modern, scientific, 

 cooperative marketing. We have had 

 the assistance in organizing of a man 

 who is one of California's most success- 



