PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 61 



are wholly at the mercy of the commission men at the other end of the 

 line, and of the commission men at this end. We have made various 

 efforts to organize the people, so that we could control in some sort of 

 way our product, and in some sort of way be able to dictate terms to 

 the buyer. Gentlemen, I say to you that the richest part of California 

 to-day, which produces the loveliest fruit on earth, where the farmers 

 have irrigation waters belonging to themselves, with soil unequaled any- 

 where, is to-day in a condition of bankruptcy, and, unless I am mis- 

 taken, that part of the country will in a short time be left in the hands 

 of the banks, and the farmers will be without their homes. They are 

 industrious men, not extravagant. They live economically and have 

 produced large crops, but I can tell this convention assembled here to- 

 day that this year they have gathered only a very small part of what 

 they produced — just a few ripe bunches — for fear of overstocking the 

 market. 



When I left home the packing-house to which I belong was buying 

 raisins at 1^ cents, and some as low as 1 cent a pound. We would like 

 to cooperate. We recognize the fact that by uniting we would have 

 some sort of security; but it is impossible to do it now, because they 

 are such stubborn fellows. The other day a man came to the firm for 

 which I was working, and said that he was compelled to have money 

 to feed his wife and baby during the time he was producing the fruit. 

 The trouble was that the farmers are in the hands of the packing-houses. 

 They had to ship their fruit on consignment, and then it was the old 

 story over again. 



Now, gentlemen, the thing for us to do is to consider the question of 

 money. If we had money, or could get money from the banks at a low 

 rate of interest, we would be independent. The banks will loan these 

 commission men money, and in that way they can handle our business, 

 but we cannot obtain a loan. There ought to be some sort of a change 

 from this condition of things. There are one or two ways. If the 

 farmers would unite and say, " We will never ship a pound of our goods 

 out of California," we could compel buyers to come here. They come 

 here to buy our prunes; they come here to buy all our dried fruit, and 

 we cannot see why it can't be done in our case. I think it can be done. 

 I have got a very large peach orchard, and I made a ton of dried fruit 

 per acre. I thought that it was pretty good. I began to feel as if there 

 was^ome money in it, but the thing did not work. They were buying 

 it somewhere else. 



There must be something done to extricate us from the evils that 

 afflict us. The difficulty is here: We are not doing our own business. 

 We are allowing the other fellow to do it for us, and he is doing it in a 

 way to suit his own methods — to his profit and to our loss. We have 

 been killing the goose that laid the golden egg. If we stick to the 

 present system these commission packers will put their heads together 

 and slaughter us. These are some of the difficulties in the way of this 

 business. If we could organize we would escape them. The commis- 

 sion man should be our friend. He ought not to be in antagonism to 

 us. We ought to act together and be in touch. We cannot do the 

 things he does. Marketing products is not our business. It would take 

 half a lifetime to learn it. It would be better for us to sell them to 

 him than to do it ourselves. 



Now, if there is some way to organize the raisin-growers, by which 



