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T\VENTY-XI^'TH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



language that can never be erased and never effaced from the memory of 

 this people who have been behind it in times past; and now, after these 

 years of toil, after these years of discouragement, after the years of 

 infancy in this industry, we have, as I said before, arrived at that proud 

 position where, through the instrumentality of co-operation, we have 

 results which are most gratifying and which have contributed more 

 than all other results, from the standpoint of the soil producer, to 

 build up this "Raisin Center" of California. But, in the address to 

 which we listened with so much interest and pleasure this forenoon, we 

 were told that a new and a more distressing, if possible, condition con- 

 fronts the raisin-grower of California than during the period of its 

 infancy, during the period of the trials and troubles to which I have 

 referred, the unfortunate period of the l-^-cent per pound for raisins, 

 and this declaration comes, gentlemen, from a man who has been con- 

 nected with this Association, intermittently, it may be, almost from its 

 infancy, from a gentleman to whom, to my certain knowledge, this com- 

 munity owes more than to any one single individual for the organiza- 

 tion and original and early success of that Association, a man of ability, a 

 man of talent, a man of courage, but, to my mind, fellow citizens, he has 

 sounded an unusual and a plaintive note to our ears this forenoon. What 

 was that note? It was the note we have heard for years in the past, 

 not from the side of the grower, friends, but from the side of the packer, 

 from the side of the commission man, from the side of the shipper, 

 namely, overproduction. (Applause.) I say, friends, that not until the 

 present moment have we heard from the standpoint of the grower this 

 doleful, this unpleasant, this stand-still — if not to say retrograding— 

 assertion, and I am here, friends, to disprove the proposition; I 

 take no stock in the allegation. I do not believe that there is a single 

 iota of truth, based in logic, for such an assertion. I believe that, 

 through an enlightened understanding, through better methods of 

 marketing our raisins, through better means of distribution, through 

 a better organization, if possible including the entire area of raisin 

 production, we shall be enabled not only to take care of the crop, 

 enormous as it has been during the past two years, but also to 

 double it, triple it — aye, quadruple it, and yet find a market for it all. 

 (Continued applause.) I make this assertion for the reason, first of all, 

 that consumption is in exact ratio to the price of the product. That, 

 fellow citizens, is the underlying principle in all transactions, in all 

 traffic, and if we lose sight of that one principle we are sure to get into 

 deep water, into the strands and shallows of disappointment and distress 

 such as seem to confront the raisin-growers of California to-day. But I say 

 that this is not the only trouble for our consideration. This is the main 

 one. Now, I mean to take up the views of three individuals of this Con- 

 vention and if possible point out the bearing of their discussion on the 



