90 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



But I am digressing from the question, and I only intended to say a 

 word to justify those who, while honestly opposed to Chinese, let their 

 ranches to Chinese. 



A Member: While I am here to talk against the Chinaman, still I 

 cannot shut my eyes to the fact that they are people who are necessary. 

 I like a good Chinaman better than I do a bad white man. He is a pagan, 

 but a man for all that. Why should we not rent to a Chinaman? The 

 Chinese cultivate the ground, and I do not see that it is not just as good 

 a thing to rent to a Chinaman as to a white man. Now, this year they 

 came down to us, and they put up good fruit, and were a law-abiding 

 class of men. My neighbors will bear me out, as far as they know my 

 methods, that whenever I can employ an American or white man I will 

 do so. I got white labor, and they were not there forty-eight hours 

 before they got drunk. Why, these men acted like wild men. I was 

 afraid. One night I was really afraid for my life. Meantime, I went 

 down to Fresno one night. My foreman was with me, and he told me 

 he went into one saloon, and pretty soon a fight arose. Seven fellows 

 were fighting, and he recognized them as our men. Next morning they 

 were sent to jail. Now, these are the white men. I submit to you 

 whether it is best to employ Chinamen who will attend to their business 

 in a decent manner, or white men who will spend their wages in saloons. 



A Member: The main fact to be considered in this question is that 

 the fruit-growers could not make their expenses within the past two or 

 three years, and have resorted to renting to Chinese. Few men all over 

 the United States have been able to make their expenses in the last two 

 or three years. I know of a man from Indiana who had 240 acres of 

 the best farming land in the State of Indiana, near Indianapolis. He 

 had been unable to make his expenses on the place. The farm was 

 well stocked with blooded cattle and horses, and he was under no mort- 

 gage whatever; and he traded that 240-acre farm and ten lots in Indian- 

 apolis for 12 acres of prune land in San Jose, this week. It looks to me 

 as though it resolved itself into the fact that some orchards did not pay. 

 There are peach orchards in at least six or seven States east of the 

 ♦Rockies, and they seem to be very successful. Georgia, for instance, 

 this year shipped 2,600 carloads of fresh peaches, and there are other 

 States that have done as well. Shall we keep on raising peaches and 

 those things that do not pay? Why not raise those things that are not. 

 raised east of the Rockies — prunes, and the like? We can just as well 

 devote our time to raising those things that we can sell and make a 

 profit. I believe that where there is a will there is a way, and that the 

 fruit-growers of California can make the business pay if they start at it 

 in the right way. It can be done, within a very few years in this 

 climate, more especially in Tulare County, and very quickly the fruit- 

 growers can introduce things that will sell at a profit. The fruit- 

 growers of California ought to make it a point to raise those things that 

 are not raised east of the Rockies, market them themselves, and, if we 

 are obliged to hire the whole Chinese population, employ them to do our 

 work, and employ other good men, and run our ranches ourselves. I 

 believe America should be for Americans. 



Mr. Bogue: A good deal depends on ourselves in this question. I 

 have got an orchard near Marysville planted out in fruit. Two years 

 ago last May a Chinaman came along and wanted to lease it for a 

 term of years. I did not care much for the orchard, as I had my other 



