MARKETING FRUITS 
the stockholder-grower is in competition 
with himself. However, many of these 
stock companies have been substantial- 
ly mutualized by allowing the stock to 
represent buildings, storage plants, ware- 
houses, etc., and the selling agency a 
mutual association in the interests of 
growers. 
State Marketing Agency 
As usual, California takes the initia- 
tive. California has passed through 
years of struggle not common to the 
Eastern states, and from experiences 
growing out of her necessities, has evolv- 
ed some lessons of value to all the world, 
but more especially to all the Pacific 
coast states. In the November (1913) 
election, she voted on the question of a 
“State Produce Exchange Market, for all 
California Farm Products.” 
Thirty thousand signatures were neces- 
sary in order to get the question on the 
ballot. The signatures were obtained. 
The proposed law called for the ap- 
pointment by the governor of a commis- 
sion of five, each to receive a salary of 
$6,000 per year and devote his entire 
time to state work. One of the five was 
to go out of office the first of 1915, two 
the first of 1917, and two the first of 
1919. The act was to give the commis- 
sion an attorney at $4,000 per year, and 
a secretary at $3,500 per year and such 
other employees as were necessary to car- 
ry on the work. 
The bill called for an appropriation of 
$200,000 to place the exchange on its 
feet. It called for at least two offices, one 
in Los Angeles and one in San Francisco. 
It provided that the commission may sell 
all agricultural, horticultural, dairy and 
farm products on consignment, within or 
without the state; that agencies and 
packing houses may be established all 
over the state; that a standard system 
of packing be established and enforced; 
that a bureau of information be estab- 
lished; that supply and demand prob- 
lems and other questions of interest to 
the producers be investigated and bulle- 
tins issued to them. It is to be supported 
by fees collected from consignors, and is 
to make settlement with the growers 
1263 
once each month. This bill failed to pass 
but has many earnest supporters and will 
probably be presented again. 
Marketing and Parcel Post 
A new feature of marketing conditions 
has arisen on account of the enactment 
of the parcel post law, which places the 
government as a carrier of parcels in 
competition with the express companies. 
In some instances, parcels have been 
carried by the government from the place 
of manufacture or production to the con- 
sumer, thus eliminating the agent, mer- 
chant, commission man or whoever form- 
erly acted as distributor to the consum- 
er. In other cases, the express com- 
panies have reduced their rates in order 
to meet the competition caused by the 
parcel post acting as distributor. 
In New York city, for instance, the 
express companies have organized a class 
of consumers to whom they agree to dis- 
tribute farm products at much lower 
prices than they would have to pay un- 
der the ordinary methods of distribution. 
At the same time, in carrying out that 
plan, they can give to the farmers for 
their products more than they had form- 
erly received. One of the express com- 
panies cited this instance, that the farm- 
ers in the outlying districts were receiving 
50 cents per bushel for their apples. The 
consumers were paying 15 cents a quart, 
which is equal to $4.80 per bushel. This 
left for carriers and distributors $4.30 
per bushel. It made the price of apples 
so low that farmers could not afford to 
produce them, and the price to consum- 
ers so high that few could afford to buy 
them. The express companies figure that 
they can pay to the farmer 75 cents per 
bushel, which, as the lower grades of ar- 
ples are produced in some of the sec- 
tions of the East without much expense, 
will leave to the producer a fair profit; 
then they can be distributed by the com- 
panies to the consumers at less than 
half the usual cost, greatly reducing the 
cost of living and increasing the profit 
to the producer. The difficulty in such 
a method is largely with the farmo2rs, 
for the express companies complain that 
they are not sufficiently organized so 
