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



KEMAEKS BY WILLIAM SPEOULE. 



MR. SPROULE. Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Convention: 

 When I was asked to come here this afternoon I did not know that I 

 was being asked to address you; instead of that I came here to be 

 instructed by you, for no man can handle his side of the question intelli- 

 gently unless he has a fair knowledge of the position of the other side. 

 I understand, however, that all I am expected to do at this time is to be 

 apologetical in my remarks as pertaining to last season's service. That 

 is an attitude I don't want to be in; on the contrary, I would confirm 

 what I said in my letter to Mr. Stephens, to the effect that I believe the 

 carriers gave this past season a service that is the best that has ever 

 been given in the fruit business. You will remember that we did some 

 years ago experiment with limited trains on a 120-hour schedule from 

 Sacramento to Chicago. We ran a few in ventilated cars, and thought 

 that we did very well, and the growers thought so to, and this year we 

 have done that, not with a few, but with a great many trains of refrig- 

 erator cars. The service on the line between Sacramento and Ogden has 

 been maintained fully up to our expectations. The service on the line 

 east of Ogden has been greatly improved, and the improvements could 

 only be brought about by harping on the same string. We carried out 

 the best service we possibly could, but the fruit was at times diverted to 

 a line that was not giving good service. We told them that they could 

 not get any more of the business until they gave the service. The 

 strikes caused us a great deal of inconvenience. No one knew that 

 the strikes were to come on, or that they would last the way thejr 

 did. We ordered one hundred and three engines early in January, 

 and the delivery was to be made in time to take care of the fruit 

 business; they were not all freight engines, however. The builders 

 turned out those locomotives as fast as they could, but not fast 

 enough to meet the requirements. The foundation of the locomotive 

 is the steel in it, and you could not get the steel when all the 

 steel manufacturers were on a strike. You see those strikes were of 

 much concern to us. In matters economic we are a united country, 

 industrially as well as politically. The transportation of our freight 

 was delayed, and it was only by persistently making the effort to secure, 

 as far as possible, the segregation of the California fruit business from 

 the general freight business, and treating it as a preferred and perishable 

 freight, that results have been secured as you have found them to have 

 been carried out. The prospects for the coming season I believe to be 

 improved; we are now receiving locomotives more satisfactory in their 

 deliveries than anything that occurred up to within the past sixty days. 

 I have recently been in correspondence with every railroad to which we 



