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merchant is necessary to you. If my contention is wrong, 

 if we are parasites, whether we will it or not, we shall cease 

 to exist as commission merchants. 



I now pass on with some trepidation to that phase which 

 has to do with the abuses of the business, and I again ask 

 that none of my remarks be construed as harsh. Indeed. 

 J speak with the utmost kindness towards all. Were it oth- 

 erwise, I would be unkind to myself, for I am looking for- 

 ward to the time when I can afford to live on my farm. 

 (Laughter and applause). 



In the fruit and produce commission business are men 

 of very excellent character, men of high ideals; and I am 

 sorry to say there are also some of the lowest types of im- 

 postors who have chosen to style themselves fruit and pro- 

 duce "commission merchants." It is largely because of 

 this impostor class that the commission merchants in gen- 

 eral are slandered and it is a pertinent question to ask. By 

 whose tolerance do these impostors exist? Their pickings 

 would indeed be small were it not for the easily deceived 

 farmer who only too readily grabs at the bait extended to 

 him. There are promises of extravagant prices, stories of 

 wonderful outlets, and these are but two of the many mag- 

 nets used to attract them to the impostor's net. The life of 

 the impostor is of course short in any particular spot, but 

 while it lasts it is a merry one and the sting remains for the 

 commission merchant, the reliable merchant, to bear. I was 

 surprised recently to learn that one of your most enlight- 

 ened members did not know of the existence of the National 

 League of Commission Merchants of the United States, and 

 it might not be amiss for me at this time to tell you briefly 

 about it. 



The National League of Commission Merchants em- 

 braces or comprises about four hundred firms, representing 

 twenty-eight cities in the United States. It came into be- 

 ing twenty-one years ago and stands today, as it did at its 

 inception, for all that is upright and wholesome, and when 

 it ceases to champion the right it will crumble. While T 



