22 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



single word of encouragement. Of course, if there are individual 

 retailers who choose to cherish the notion that paying exorbitant rates 

 to swell the extravagant dividends of express companies really benefits 

 them and their customers, that is their privilege as citizens of this free 

 republic. If the experience of the past does not convince them that 

 all improvement of transportation facilities increases commerce, I 

 can not hope that any argument of mine will avail. If there be such 

 an one still in California, at least let him cease from advertising the 

 Eastern mail-order houses by getting his local editor to tell the farmers 

 that they can buy cheaper in Chicago than they can of him. He had 

 better spend his time hustling to buy his own goods cheaper by buying 

 direct from the factory and getting things delivered by cheap parcels 

 post, where there will be no rebates and no special rates of any kind. 

 The world moves, and the retail merchant must keep step or lose his 

 place in the procession. He must accept the means at hand to hold 

 his own, and in this struggle with the Eastern mail-order houses the 

 parcels post is the very weapon he wants to aid him in his warfare. 

 By its aid he can stand, if he will only cease telling all the world that 

 they can buy cheaper in Chicago than they can of him. The fact of 

 this having been the one stock argument put forward to discredit the 

 parcels post, certainly demonstrates that the express companies and 

 not the merchants are the real opponents. It is surely incredible that 

 any body of intelligent California merchants would be so insane as to 

 spread a report up and down the length and breadth of the land that 

 consumers can profitably send to Chicago for their goods instead of 

 buying at home. I trust our merchants have such abundant good sense 

 as shall lead them to denounce their being any longer made cat's paws 

 to rake out hot chestnuts for the express companies' ravenous maws. 



My time runs short. But permit me one word to tell you how British 

 farmers and fruit-growers are subserved by the parcels post. By the 

 adoption of packages of size and weight in accord with postal regu- 

 lations the British farmer can have his produce taken from his gate by 

 postal motor or wagon, shipped in the cars, and thence delivered at the 

 house of the addressee in such quantities as suit his convenience. Sim- 

 ilarly, goods can be shipped to him from any part of the kingdom and 

 delivered at his gate. It does not matter one whit whether it is cream, 

 butter, eggs, fruit, fish, or fowls— anything goes, goes on time, and gets 

 there on time. One firm shipped 70,000 parcels in two days. 



Just how useful such an institution would be to us, each one can 

 readily picture for himself. The endless waste of time, and the constant 

 annoyance daily experienced for lack of such service, we all too keenly 

 realize. The comfort of such an institution, the saving of cash and 

 energy, of time and temper, also appeal to us all. "Whether we are to 

 enjoy this inestimable boon to all classes depends upon ourselves. We 



