TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



59 



Is it possible that we, the cured-fruit producers of California, will go 

 on making a shameful exhibition of our incapacity in the face of the 

 business world, and with such a phenomenal opportunity to win a 

 fortune for each and all of us as we haye had this season? 



As to methods of organization, resourceful men should be able to 

 deyise half a dozen different methods, any one of which would bring 

 success. 



If the plan of the raisin association is not adapted to the larger 

 needs of the producers of prunes, peaches, and apricots, or if through 

 the mismanagement of the board of directors of the prune association 

 that plan is discredited, why not take as an eminently successful model 

 the best of the labor organizations? Create local centers of organiza- 

 tion all oyer the State where deliyeries are to be made, and let the 

 packing of the fruit be done by those who produce it. These local 

 organizations to create a central board of delegates, which, throug"h 

 inspectors, shall enforce a uniform standard of packing that shall com- 

 mand the confidence of the trade and create a yaluable trade-mark. 

 This central board to haye the sole control of prices and the distribu- 

 tion of the fruit. The proceeds from sales to be sent in lump sums to 

 the various local organizations, to be by them paid out to the farmers. 



This need not interfere in any manner with the sale of the fruit 

 through the present established channels of trade. It simply reserves 

 the packing and — a very important point — retains the possession of the 

 fruit in the hands of the growers until paid for. 



Allow me to make one more suggestion, which is this: If the growers 

 are to have a reasonable hope of creating a marketing medium that will 

 be really and entirely successful, it will be absolutely necessary for 

 them to rise above the penny wise and pound foolish practice of employ- 

 ing boys to do men's work, of employing so-called cheap men who 

 invariably prove a costly and unprofitable investment, of skimping in 

 the salary, thereby reaping loss and disaster through inompetent 

 service. I think you will all recognize Mr. Carnegie as a pretty good 

 model of a successful business man. It is well known that he made it 

 a rule of his business career to employ as his assistants the very best 

 and most skillful men in the iron industry, and that he paid them liber- 

 ally is evidenced in the large fortunes of Mr. Frick, Mr. Schwab, and 

 others. You have heard of the great Krupp Iron Works of Germany, the 

 largest and most successful in Europe. It is evident from the character 

 of the German navy and of the German Atlantic passenger ships that the 

 Krupp Works have skillful workmen. It is known that the German 

 system of education is the most thorough in the world. And yet it is 

 a fact recently noted that this company, by the offer of much larger 

 salaries, enticed away some of Carnegie's best men. 



Do you think they would do this if they did not believe that it pays 



