14 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



" Well, that's the trouble ; I cannot intelligently conduct my business. It is largely a 

 matter of guess work and chance, and my judgment and experience many times count 

 for little." 



"Would it be of any advantage to you if a consolidated salesroom were established, 

 where all the fruit would be sold under one roof? " 

 "Why, yes ; it would be a great advantage to me." 

 " How would it be an advantage to you? " 



" It would be an advantage because I could then do my business intelligently, and 

 know what to buy and when to buy, and largely avoid overstocking or understocking 

 myself." , - 



" Yes ; but if a consolidated salesroom is established, and all the buyers are brought 

 under one roof, would not the competition among them become keener, and would you 

 not have to pay higher prices for the fruit in order to get it? " 



"Yes, that is true; but I should not object to that. I would cheerfully pay higher 



S rices so long as I knew that all my competitors had to pay the same run of prices. I 

 o not make the most money whenfruit is cheap. On the contrary, I make more money 

 and have fewer losses when prices are fairly high. As it is now, with two salesrooms, I 

 may buy a lot of grapes in one room for 75 cents, and my man may buy a similar lot in 

 the other room for $1; and so long as grapes have been sold at 75 cents, that makes the 

 price for the day, and the profit I might have made on the 75-cent lot I lose on the $1 

 tot; and all my labor for the day has practically been without profit. Whereas, if all 

 the buyers were together, there would be a uniformity of price for that day, and the 

 advantage is not so much in having low prices as in having a uniform price. If I should 

 pay $1 per box in a consolidated room for certain fruit, and find that the price toward 

 the latter end of the sale was weakening, 1 and all the other buyers in the room who 

 had bought in the earlier part of the sale at a higher price would use our best endeavors 

 to prevent our competitors from buying at the lower price, enabling them to undersell 

 us, and we would stiffen up the bids as much as possible, in order that we might not 

 suffer a loss upon what we had purchased by being undersold by others." 



"Well, then, from what you say it is evident that a consolidated salesroom is not 

 alone in the interest of the grower, but is also in the interest of the buyer?" 

 "Yes, I am sure that is so." 



"Then, why is it an impression has prevailed that the buyers preferred two salesrooms 

 rather than one ? " 



"That may have been so in the past, but buyers have found from costty experience 

 that the advantages of two salesrooms are a delusion and a snare, and that it is to their 

 interest, as much as in the interest of the grower, that there shall be a consolidation." 



From the above interview, which is a fair representation of many 

 held with leading buyers in the New York market, it can be seen that 

 the consolidated salesroom is in the interest of all and to the injury of 

 none. 



While the best conceivable condition in New York, as well as else- 

 where, would be to have all the fruit delivered at one terminal, yet it 

 would seem that, owing to certain fixed opinions existing within the 

 minds of various shippers and growers as to the relative merits of the 

 two competing lines entering New York City — the Erie and the West 

 Shore — it is hardly probable that all concerned are likely to agree upon 

 shipping over either one of the two lines. 



If, then, two railway lines are to continue to be patronized, and two 

 New York terminals are to be used for the delivery of California fruit, 

 the next best plan, in order to establish a consolidation, is to select an 

 outside salesroom conveniently located between the piers, about four 

 hundred feet apart, where all the auctioneers and all the buyers may 

 be brought together with the view of holding daily consolidated sales. 

 While this plan will not bring all the fruit together under one roof, as 

 the fruit, under this plan, would be inspected at the two different piers 

 by the buyers, who would then all assemble in the consolidated sales- 

 room, it will at least bring all the buyers and sellers under one roof, 

 which is the next best thing, and which will largely overcome the exist- 

 ing evils of divided buyers and rival sales. 



The only objection that has been offered to this plan is presented by 

 Messrs. Ruhlman, Horace Day, and Mr. Jarolman, who are New York 

 receivers, and who claim that a consolidation will prolong the daily 



