72 . PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



Pacific Railroad system $4,552 for freight this last season for peaches 

 shipped from my orchard into San Francisco. I loaded my own cars 

 and unloaded them, entirely free of any expense on the part of the rail- 

 road company. The rate was $5 50 a ton from Goshen to San Fran- 

 cisco. The service was good, but the rate of freight on wheat from that 

 point into San Francisco was $3 25 a ton. Is it possible that we who 

 raise fruit shall be compelled to pay $5 50 a ton, while the wheat men 

 are able to get a local rate of $3 25 a ton? I would like to ask Colonel 

 Weinstock whether he can help us any, in order to get that local 

 reduction? 



Mr. Weinstock: In reply to Major Berry, I would say that he gives 

 me credit to which I am not entitled. I hope I did not convey the idea 

 to this audience that I succeeded in getting the reduction of 40 per 

 cent. It was the committee, not myself personally, because there were 

 other members of the committee who made better points than I did. 

 Secondly, we had a good case, a strong case. It was evident that the 

 railroad company had not revised its local rates for many years. When 

 these charges had been fixed, the shipments of fruit were small. Mean- 

 while, the industry had grown from a very small business to very 

 large proportions, and the fact that the committee placed these facts in 

 its general outline made it possible for the railroad company to make 

 that very little concession. I believe that Mr. Fowler and others made 

 as many points as I did, and did fully as much, and some of them more 

 than I. I do not know the merits of the case that Major Berry presents. 

 If it is a just case and a strong case, and the Major will present the 

 facts to our committee, we will take it up and present it to the railroad 

 company. They will consider it, and no doubt correct it. They have 

 shown that spirit to our committee, and I am sure that they will 

 continue to do so. 



Mr. Berwick: I will now move that a rising vote of thanks be given 

 to Major Weinstock by this convention. 



Adopted. 



Judge Aiken: Would not Major Berry's proposition properly come 

 before a distinguished commission in this State called the Railroad 

 Commission? They have the authority and the power to fix the railroad 

 rate from Major Berry's part of the San Joaquin Valley. They have 

 the constitutional power to do this, but will they do it? That is the 

 question. Heretofore the Railroad Commission has interpreted the law 

 according to its own estimation. They told me once that they never 

 applied to the railroad company for anything that they did not get. If 

 that is so, they never applied for anything, for I am quite positive they 

 never got anything. I have served, on committees similar to the one 

 Major Weinstock has served on, and have had many interviews for 

 many years with our fruit-growers in the effort to secure lower rates, 

 and, gradually, rates have been lowered by the railroad authorities. I 

 remember on one occasion, particularly, of being on a committee of fruit 

 men who waited on the late A. N. Towne, asking for a reduction in fruit 

 rates. After the committee had discussed the question very fully, Mr. 

 Towne remarked that they were in the business of running a railroad, 

 and we were in the business of raising fruit, and if we did not like the 

 business of raising fruit we might get out of it — Mr. Towne was not feeling 

 well that day. He further remarked that he was desirous of obtaining 

 all the money possible that year, and that they wanted to make the 



