212 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



change member is penalized for his progressiveness. The 

 case is quite analogous to the condition of the non-union 

 workman who gladly accepts the increased wages, the short- 

 ened hours, and the improved working conditions that have 

 been fought for and won by the unions but who declines to 

 bear his brunt of the fight. 



If taken to task some of these independent shippers would 

 confess that without the steadying effect of the exchange 

 the citrus industry of California could not possibly have 

 reached its present dimensions, and might not have existed 

 at all. If the exchange showed any signs of collapsing they 

 would rush to its support, but meanwhile they are quite 

 content to "ride without paying." But the exchange cannot 

 adopt this irresponsible philosophy. Its very life depends 

 on systematic marketing. With the reversion to spasmodic 

 marketing the exchange itself, because of its enormous 

 shipments, would be the worst sufferer. 



The final straw to the exchange member's patience, and 

 the one that is responsible for most desertions from the 

 system, is the fact that the independent shipper with his 

 chaotic methods sometimes obtains higher prices, even after 

 the exchange member has gone to the trouble and expense 

 of building up his elaborate marketing machinery. When 

 non-exchange shipments bring better prices, exchange mem- 

 bers at once learn the fact through the citrus market reports 

 of the daily papers, and indeed independent shippers nat- 

 urally try to make capital out of these successes by bringing 

 them to the attention of both their own and exchange ship- 

 pers. To be sure, these particularly high prices often do 

 not apply to entire car lot sales, but to a few boxes of ex- 

 ceptionally fine fruit within a car, while exchange sales al- 

 most invariably denote the average price a box obtained 

 for the whole car. But the psychological effect of the high 

 quotations is just as disastrous as if these few exceptional 

 sales did have some real significance. 



