58 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



the last annual meeting, in fact the whole of them, instructed their 

 directors to handle this season's crop in this way. If the growers on 

 the outside insist on staying out the association directors shall cut the 

 prices and meet every cut that is made by the outsider. We have an 

 expression that "the association has held the umbrella for the outsider.'' 

 This cut was the instructions to the directors. Well, in addition to 

 that difficulty, we had to deal with the decisions in the prune cases. 

 As you all know, the Prune Association adopted the Fresno Raisin- 

 Growers' form of contract, and in the litigation the courts declared that 

 the grower was not bound by the contract to deliver more than two per 

 cent. I believe the Prune Association declared that the association 

 should have two per cent for handling the fruit, and if the grower saw 

 fit to deliver two per cent he could deal with the ninety-eight per cent 

 as he pleased. That left the weak-kneed grower who joined the asso- 

 ciation practically free to sell his crop outside if he wished to. I saw 

 the danger in that condition, and I brought the matter up before our 

 directors and growers, and I asked them to abandon that contract, and 

 to have a new contract signed, and the form of this later contract would 

 be the leasing of the vineyards to the association. The most absolute 

 combination is the Standard Oil combination or the Steel Trust. It 

 consists of the purchase, absolutely, of the properties; but that is not 

 feasible with us. The next step is a lease; we thought that if we got a 

 lease and allowed the grower to work his place under contract with the 

 association we would have control of the crop. The title to the crop 

 was what we wanted. That was a radical step, and it frightened some 

 of the growers, but there was no cause for their being frightened; there 

 was no injury to their title to the property, for the property would sell 

 twice as readily and for twice as much as without it. They hesitated. 

 Then again, some of them said, " My neighbor on the outside got more 

 out of his crop last year than I got, and I am going to stay on the out- 

 side too." 



The result of it was that on my return from Europe, where I went for 

 the summer, I found that there was only twenty per cent of those 

 signed after three months' work. We undertook an active canvass and 

 worked the number up to sixty per cent, and the other forty per cent 

 remained on the outside. There were seventeen concerns on the out- 

 side seeking to make contracts with the growers and buy the raisins 

 from the growers. There was but one step to take that I could see if 

 we were to save any semblance of an association, and that was to smash 

 the market of the outsider right then and there, and prevent him from 

 selling his product at any price until we made an effort to draw those 

 growers together. I announced to the trade in the East that the 

 growers had authorized the directors to cut the price to 2 cents per 

 pound in the sweat-box if necessary, in order to meet competition on 



