46 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



could a grower do when the railroad reported that his car 

 arrived in good condition, and the commission merchant 

 reported for the same car that the fruit could hardly be sold 

 at any price because of its poor condition? 



These were some of the difficulties which beset the 

 growers when they organized the Orange Growers' Pro- 

 tective Union. The purpose of the union was primarily 

 to secure a better control of the market and to escape from 

 the exploitation of buyers and commission men. It was 

 felt to be unfair that some growers should receive from 

 I GO per cent, to 200 per cent, more than others for the same 

 quality of fruit when all had exercised the same degree of 

 diligence in producing and marketing it. However, the 

 union was not firmly organized, as the principles requisite 

 to a stable enterprise were not clearly grasped by its origi- 

 nators, even though these men must receive credit for at- 

 tempting to remedy an evil situation. 



Concerted activity on the part of the growers was the 

 last thing desired by the speculative shippers, and their 

 activities against the imion were persistent, for they saw 

 in any organization a sure decline in their profits and possi- 

 bly the ruin of their business. Their attacks were success- 

 ful. The union speedily succumbed, and then followed the 

 famous "red ink" years when it was an open question 

 whether the business of producing citrus fruits in California 

 was going to survive or not. Speculative buying held high 

 carnival, and many a man was compelled to accept for his 

 crop a fraction of what it had cost him to produce it. 

 Growers who preferred to gamble on the state of the mar- 

 ket by selling on commission fared little better. The culmi- 

 nation of the years of disaster was reached in 1892-93, 

 when "red ink" accounts in startling numbers were re- 

 corded. "Red ink" was the euphemistic way of saying that 

 a grower had not only produced and given away his crop 



