Ill 



is ill-timed and not in close sympathy with the Varying con- 

 ditions which such a law would necessarily face. 



In my observation and investigation of the subject, I 

 have tried to look at the matter in a broadminded way, giv- 

 ing every argument consideration, no matter whether pro 

 or con, and from such an unprejudiced view point am de- 

 cidedly inclined to agree with the second class mentioned 

 above, namely, the conservatives. 



If we must have legislation in this subject, let us have 

 as a starter something more moderate. I have indicated 

 what my answer to the question proposed on the program 

 will be, and now it remains to cover the conditions and ar- 

 guments that have led me to give you the exact status of the- 

 legislative propaganda on fruit as developed to date. Work 

 has been done in this line both by Congress and State Legis- 

 latures, In a federal way you are familiar with the so- 

 called Porter bill, which has served to rally the forces for 

 and against national standardization of apple packing. 



It is a matter of common knowledge that in handling 

 fruit abroad, and in fact here in America, it is impracticable 

 to examine every package. The custom in the European 

 exchanges is to select a few barrels from every lot of apples 

 received from the United States or Canada, open them upon 

 a table, and judge the lot by those few barrels. In this com- 

 parison, American apples have compared unfavorably with 

 the Canadian product packed under competent inspection 

 and the so-called Fruit iMarks act. Thus we see the reason 

 why enterprising American growers are seeking to do away 

 with the poor grading and dishonest packing of apples 

 which leads to a poor reputation for our fruit. 



The Porter bill has been criticised severely, and, as a 

 matter of fact, is in all probability a "dead duck." Mr. 

 Porter is no longer in Congress, and in a recent letter de- 

 clared that there were parts of the bill he presented in which 

 he personally did not believe. Therefore, he introduced it 

 "by request." 



What little chance the Porter bill had has been further 

 weakened by the introduction of a substitute bill by Daniel 

 F. Lafean of Pennsylvania. This new measure was intro- 

 duced into Congress Feb. 25, and referred to committee on 

 interstate and foreign commerce. If the Lafean bill be- 

 came a law, it would establish what would be known as the 

 United States standard, and the three sizes would be known? 



