AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS 203 



ciation is bound to disseminate these results throughout the 

 whole organization. 



What power the league can bring to bear on general 

 citrus problems may be thrown into stronger light by 

 tracing briefly the history of the lemon rate case and the 

 pre-cooling case. In 1909, after the tariff on lemons was 

 advanced from one to one and one-half cents a pound, the 

 railroads responded by announcing an advance in freight 

 charges on lemons from $1 to $1.15 a hundred pounds. Cit- 

 rus fruits from California have long enjoyed a blanket or 

 "postage stamp" rate to all the principal markets east of the 

 Rocky Mountains : that is, the rate to Kansas City and to 

 Boston is identical. So an advance in rates was a serious 

 matter. Therefore the Citrus Protective League in connec- 

 tion with the legal department of the California Fruit Grow- 

 ers Exchange entered a petition, in the name of one of the 

 district exchanges of the exchange system, in the Circuit 

 Court for the Southern District of California asking that the 

 new rate should not be permitted to take effect until the rea- 

 sonableness of the increase had been submitted to the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission. The injunction was granted 

 in November, 1909, and at a hearing the commission de- 

 cided in June, 19 10, that the rate should not exceed $1 a 

 hundred pounds. Thereupon, in October, 1910, the car- 

 riers filed a joint bill of complaint in the Circuit Court fox 

 the First District of Kansas, alleging that the commission's 

 order was null and void on the grounds both that the com- 

 mission had exceeded its legal authority and that the rate 

 of $1 was confiscatory. An injunction against putting the 

 commission's order into operation was granted, and the 

 case was transferred to the newly established United States 

 Commerce Court. 



Another extensive hearing was held, this time before the 

 Commerce Court, with the result that in October, 191 1, 



