ELEMENTS OF DANGER IN COOPERATION. 237 



Union" was organized as a fresh-fruit shipping association, 

 owned aiul controlled by the growers themselves. A very 

 large number of growers, including most of the largest, became 

 stockholders, and for some years the Union was the largest 

 shipper of fresh fruit from California, and all its operations 

 appear to have been honestly and effectively conducted. It 

 secured, from the start, many concessions and advantages to 

 the growers, which would otherwise have been delayed for 

 years. After a successful existence for several years, the Union, 

 in 1894, went out of business. 



The cause of this practical failure of cooperative work was 

 the instability of character of the mass of its stockholders. 

 Personal dissensions arose between some of tlie largest ship- 

 pers, causing some withdrawals, but it is probable that the 

 majority of the withdrawals of large shippers grew rather from 

 a speculative fever which passed through the state, causing 

 some who had been successful to engage in large plantings 

 ou credit, which soon brought with it the necessity for large 

 advances, which could only be secured by a practical or actual 

 mortgage of the crop to commission men, who, of course, insisted 

 on marketing the fruit. But it was found that the great mass 

 of smaller growers, whose aggregate output is, on the whole, the 

 controlling factor, could not be depended upon at all. Com- 

 mission houses, seeking the business, flooded the state with 

 incisive "talkers," who found no difficulty whatever in exciting 

 in the minds of the fruit-growers distrust of and even enmity 

 to the agency of their own creation. Tlie plan of concentrating 

 the shipments under one general management, sufficiently 

 powerful to insure the widest distribution possible, was thus 

 defeated by the mental weakness of its members. Tiiere was 

 never any ground for serious complaint of the management, 

 and even if certain alleged abuses had existed, growers would 

 have been far better off to have shipped through the Union, 

 and permitted them to continue. But they were infirm of 

 purpose, and sharpers were quick to take advantage of them. 

 There was another reason which brouglit about the final 

 winding up of a business which was still large and reasonablv 

 prosperous. Fresh fruit is a very perishable commodity, upon 



