200 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



If the league were not in existence, of course the only 

 organization that could cope with the more general public 

 iaspects of the citrus business would be the California Fruit 

 Growers Exchange. But since advantages in the form of 

 lower freight rates, better accommodations, or similar mat- 

 ters accrued to the entire industry as well as to the mem- 

 bers of the exchange, it was admitted that the entire burden 

 of securing improvements could not rightfully be shifted 

 to the exchange alone. To be sure, the small minority of 

 growers and shippers who refuse or neglect to join the 

 league announce by their actions that they are interested 

 in secured benefits rather than in securing benefits. Even 

 in a highly organized industry where cooperation and public- 

 spiritedness are the keynotes, such anachronisms of selfish- 

 ness are probably inevitable. 



In a recent statement the league thus describes its ac- 

 fcomplishments : 



The Citrus Protective League, in the eight years that it 

 has been organized, has been the instrument by which the 

 citrus fruit growers of California have been enabled to ac- 

 complish certain definite benefits to themselves which it 

 would have been impossible for individual growers or mar- 

 keting organizations to obtain. The results have been ac- 

 complished through the voluntary cooperation of its mem- 

 bers who have given their time and experience without 

 charge in order that the industry as a whole might benefit. 



It then enumerates as its achievements the reduction in 

 1907 of the freight rate on oranges from $1.25 to $1.15 

 a hundred pounds, which saves the industry about $1,000,- 

 000 in a normal year; a change in the refrigeration tariff 

 in 1909 which nets to the industry about $50,000 a year; 

 the successful litigation of the lemon rate case by which 

 the carriers were restrained from increasing the freight 

 rate on lemons from $1 to $1.15 a hundred pounds. This 

 case was in constant litigation from 1909 to 1913, when 



