THE EXCHANGE AND THE MARKET 209 



if it tried to restrict or discourage the planting of new citrus 

 acreage or limit membership or control shipments, there 

 would be adequate reason on the part of non-members for 

 hesitating to join, but it should be abundantly clear from 

 the foregoing description of the exchange's methods that 

 no such practices are countenanced. Very few growers 

 who understand the system base their objections on this 

 ground, although some more or less interested parties have 

 at times tried to sound the "trust" alarm. Growers know 

 that they are at liberty to join, in fact, that their member- 

 ship is desired; and they know that they will have a voice 

 in directing the policy of their association according to their 

 relative importance as growers. They also realize that were 

 it not for the stabilizing effect of the exchange on the mar- 

 ket they very probably could not produce profitably at all. 

 Many non-members admit that with no exchange the citrus 

 industry would be a puny affair. 



Yet they refuse to become members and take their part 

 in maintaining the organization which they acknowledge 

 is indispensable to their welfare. The reason is that the 

 benefits from many of the public policy activities of the 

 exchange and the advantages of a regularized market accrue 

 almost equally to members and non-members. The same 

 dilemma confronts the exchange system that confronts the 

 dominant organization in any industrial field. It realizes 

 that judicious distribution of fruit, extended as long in time 

 and as widely in space as possible, is the only means of sell- 

 ing the constantly and rapidly augmenting citrus crop. No 

 other organization is in a position to take the lead in this 

 rational, scientific marketing program. K the whole in- 

 dustry would fall into line and support these efforts toward 

 regular distribution, the marketing problem would be 

 solved satisfactorily. 



This does not imply that citrus fruits could always be 



