TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



43 



DISCUSSION ON CO-OPERATIVE MARKETING. 



MR. SPRAGUE. For years it has been known that it was impos- 

 sible for the growers of products for the San Francisco market to get 

 satisfactory service in that market; that there were many abuses to 

 which that traffic was subject, and excessive charges for the work, and 

 during the last several sessions of this Convention there has been an 

 effort to secure the organization of the growers to such an extent as 

 would enable them to remedy those evils. As a result of this, the com- 

 mittee appointed by your Convention secured the organization of the 

 growers along the Sacramento River for the purpose of marketing their 

 products in San Francisco. It Avas late before this action was taken on 

 the Sacramento River, too late for similar action in other localities 

 interested in the San Francisco market. Therefore, the Sacramento 

 River growers were obliged to attempt to conduct that work alone. 

 They met, early in the season, with the determined opposition of the 

 commission merchants' association, and so bitter was this opposition 

 that it virtually forced them out of business for the time, and they were 

 unable to sell their products. They appealed to the other portions of 

 the State interested in that market to join them in this undertaking — 

 parts of the State shipping heavil}^ to San Francisco. It was endeav- 

 ored to interest individuals engaged largely in shipping to that market, 

 and they endeavored to interest the people of San Francisco who were suf- 

 fering by reason of excessive charges, but it was all in vain; no efficient 

 interest could be created, either among the growers or among the people 

 of San Francisco, and, as a result, this organization, by the first law of 

 nature, which is self-preservation, was obliged to refrain from continu- 

 ing the fight on its own behalf and alone in San Francisco. It is now 

 doing a business in San Francisco, and has been during the past season, 

 which has not involved the serious antagonism of the commission mer- 

 chants. Now then, what can be done in the face of such a situation as 

 this? We are confronted with the fact that the products of our farms 

 are sold to the people of San Francisco at excessive rates to the con- 

 sumers, thereby greatly checking the consumption of those products, 

 and that is a very serious factor. In former times you know that the 

 commission merchants, unless they could secure a certain, definite price, 

 a somewhat high price, would throw into the bay that which they could 

 not sell, rather than lower the price and sell a very much larger volume. 

 This^ is common history. Now, that is contrary to the welfare of the 

 grower tributary to that market. There should be a stable, normal 

 market price, which should return a fair compensation to the growers. 

 That is the best condition which they can seek in San Francisco. A large 

 consumption is what we want, not a small consumption with exception- 

 ally high prices occasionally. The people of San Francisco, as we 



