143 



Now we save cartage right then and there, for the old sys- 

 tem was to charge cartage to the shipper from the dock to 

 Washington Street or elsewhere, where the wholesale store 

 was operated. The wholesale merchants charge, as a rule, 

 ten per cent, for the selling of the fruit, but there were 

 deals where he charged seven per cent, or eight or five per 

 cent,, but the receivers in New York City do not sell fruit 

 tc retailers, as a rule, there are exceptions to almost every 

 nile. but I think it is safe to tell you that ninety per cent, 

 of the fruit shipped to the receiving commission merchants 

 is sold to a jobber and another commission must be earned 

 or a profit taken. It cost the jobber to operate. 10 to 15 per 

 cent. Our great city rents are high and expenses of all 

 kind are high and you have a multiplicity of buyers. That 

 vras reaching the consumer very slowly, for still from the 

 jobber it must go to the retailer. 



We are eliminating in this discussion any reference to 

 the speculator. Very often in your market, apples have 

 changed hands three or four times and profits have some- 

 times been made by every one of those men who purchased 

 them, and sometime a loss was accepted; hnt they are 

 shrewd men. they r.re in business, they buy on time and if 

 the market goes down they scream about the quality, they 

 try to get back and sometimes a rebate is allowed by the 

 commission man. His is anything but a bed of roses. He 

 gets great quantities of stuff when there is no good market, 

 AS'hen no speculator or buyer wants anything and when the 

 'i-arket is thronged, the commission man stands there empty- 

 handed, often Avith nothing to sell, but the rent must be paid 

 i^nd the hired help must be paid, so the commission man is 

 rot in heaven yet, anyhow, and I am not sure he ever will be. 

 I\jr. Tuttle told me that he estimated that $200,000,000 were 

 being wasted. 



You ask ''Can all of this business be conducted on Des- 

 liroses Street Pier?" No, it cannot, but the Pennsylvania, 

 Eailroad have an auction room alongside and have tendered 

 us that, and the Lehigh Valley have offered us a pier. The 



