TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 103 



fornia, in a position in which he will declare: "The more raisin grapes 

 and the more raisins I have, the better off I am." I thank you for your 

 attention. (Applause.) 



PRESIDENT COOPER. I will now be glad to hear from any one 

 else on this subject. 



MR. WHITE. Mr. Chairman, I consumed considerable of the time 

 of this Convention this morning in going over this matter, and I hesitate 

 to consume much more of it, because I have not changed my mind from 

 what it was in the forenoon on account of what Mr. Mcintosh has said. 

 I am still of the opinion that the production of raisins in California is 

 in excess of the demand. He speaks of the parcels post. I admit that 

 that would perhaps be a good thing, but we haven't got it yet. There 

 are many things which perhaps can be done to do away with the over- 

 production and to extend our markets, but those are things which must 

 be studied out, they must be worked out carefully and by business men, 

 by men of commercial intelligence. At the time Mr. Kearney adopted 

 the "sticker," as he calls it, on the side of the package: "10 cents and 

 no more for this package of raisins," the market didn't take to it, and 

 no more raisins were sold under those conditions than were sold before. 

 That was the information we got at headquarters from all along the 

 line. Now, that may be a good thing when the trade becomes accus- 

 tomed to it, but when you tell the retailer that he can not sell a certain 

 article above a certain price, he doesn't like it. You have got to educate 

 him up to it. Now, when I say that it is better to sell one hundred 

 million pounds of raisins at four cents a pound than to sell two hundred 

 million pounds at two cents a pound, it is because there is more money 

 in it, more profit in it to the grower. I believe in co-operation. I believe 

 it is a safeguard to the grower. I believe the growers should come 

 together and organize these little co-operative companies and attempt 

 in all ways, by post and by increased facilities for transportation, to 

 get our raisins closely before the consuming classes of people. I admit 

 that one argument which Mr. Mcintosh has made is good, and that is 

 that there is too much difference between the price which the grower 

 gets and the price which the consumer has to pay. But, what are you 

 going to do about it? Now, he spoke about paying 17i cents a pound 

 in Fresno. Why, does not Mr. Mcintosh know that every pound of 

 our best grade of raisins that the Raisin-Growers' Association sells we 

 sell at 15 cents a pound, by carload lots? Perhaps he does not know 

 that. 



MR. McINTOSH. It is a small proportion of them. 



MR. WHITE. It makes no difference. We can sell all we produce, 

 and you can't go to a packing-house in this city to-day and buy a pound 

 of raisins of such grade at less than that price. 



MR. SPRAGUE. Who is it gets that price, the 15 cents a pound? 



