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TWENTY-NINTH FKUIT-GROWERs' CONVENTION. 



copy of this report, with the request that if it was not satisfactory, if 

 it did not meet with his approval, if there was anything left unsaid 

 which he thought should be said, or anything said which he thought 

 ought not to be said, it would afford me pleasure to receive such sug- 

 gestions from him as he saw proper to give. I also mailed to Mr. Alden 

 Anderson, our worthy Lieutenant-Governor, a copy with the same 

 request. I have received no answer from either, consequently I am 

 not able to say whether this report will meet with their approval or 

 not. Silence, however, gives consent, they say; so, viewing it from that 

 standpoint, they having had an opportunity of adversely criticising it, 

 it would seem that it meets with their approval. 



To the Honorable Chairman, and the Members of the Fruit-Growers' Convention: 

 Your Committee on Transportation begs leave to submit the following report: 

 We, the undersigned members of the Fruit-Growers' Transportation Committee, 

 believe the private ownership and control of refrigerator cars used for shipment of Cali- 

 fornia fruit to be inimical to the interests of the fruit-growers and shippers, as affording 

 an opportunity for discrimination and favoritism. 



All cars and other transportation facilities should be owned and controlled in every 

 particular by the railroads, and all shippers should have equal facilities and be upon 

 equal terms. 



We, therefore, in this public way, record our earnest protest against the renewal or extension 

 of existing contracts with the refrigerator car lines now engaged in this traffic, or the making 

 of any similar contracts with any parties whatsoever. 



We make further objection to the private ownership and control of these refrigerator 

 cars, as having the effect to maintain what we consider excessive refrigeration rates. 



The fruit-growers— those who are not engaged in the shipping and marketing busi- 

 ness — are irrevocably opposed to the private ownership and control of the cars in which 

 their products are shipped. They believe the time has come when they should be relieved 

 from paying heavy tribute to this, the worst of all monopolies. Its power is so great as 

 to subordinate all other interests, and if combined with the marketing, will be almost 

 absolute. There is no power that can prevent such combination so long as private cars 

 have the monopoly of carrying our fruit, with a tariff that brings in such an enormous 

 profit as does the present tariff for refrigeration, for the reason that the large fruit com- 

 panies are corporations, and there is no law through which the transfer and control of 

 the stock of such corporations can be prevented. 



This fact is mentioned for the reason that the railroad companies claim to be opposed to a 

 combination of sxLch a character, and we desire to show that the only way to prevent it is not 

 to enter into a contract with the Armour Company, or any other car line, for the reason that it 

 would be easy for the car line with which the contract is made, through the coercive power it 

 would then possess, to soon gain control of fruit-marketing companies by having a majority of 

 the stock transferred to it, or have it held in trust by those who would be subject to its will, 

 which would amount to the same thing. 



Refrigeration has been the bane of the fruit-growers of California. It has done more 

 to retard the progress and prosperity of this State than all other things combined, for the 

 reason that it possesses the power to almost wholly, if not quite, control the marketing of its 

 fruit products. 



Time Schedule. — In regard to the time occupied in the transportation and delivery of 

 our fruit at Eastern destinations, we reiterate all that we said in our memorial upon this 

 subject for the season of 1901, and earnestly pray that the time agreed upon in May of 

 that year between the growers and the railroad companies — six days to Chicago and 

 similar points, and nine days to New York and similar points — be put into full force 

 for the coming season 1904. 



