100 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS * CONVENTION. 



COMMON INTERESTS OF FRUIT-GROWERS AND RAILROADS. 



By PAUL SHOUP, of San Francisco. - 

 Three years ago the pleasure was mine of addressing the State Fruit- 

 Growers ' Convention at San Jose. Since then many transportation 

 changes have taken place. Some have affected the relations of the rail- 

 ways with the public at large ; some more especially the relations of the 

 railroads with the fruit-growers. 



Nothing, however, has happened to change the belief then expressed ; 

 the final just determination of the relations between the public and the 

 railroads, and what is due each from the other, will come only through a 

 thorough understanding and appreciation by each of the difficulties; 

 trials, and limitations of the other. The affection we have for our 

 friends, and our steadfast confidence in them, are not created solely 

 through knowledge of their strength and virtues, but as well through 

 knowing their troubles and their limitations. 



The railroad man in a place of responsibility who has no interest in 

 the business and welfare of the road's patrons, but performs his work 

 in a purely routine way, is not fit for his job. With changing condi- 

 tions and new problems, that man will have no way ready to meet them. 

 On the other hand, the shipper who blindly demands a certain unvary- 

 ing service from the railroad, knowing nothing of transportation and 

 caring nothing for the factors that give it uncertainty, in his criticism 

 helps to create antagonism detrimental to all, helpful to none. 



A third person need also be considered, one who may be sincere and 

 honest but is neither shipper nor railroad man, and is apt to be without 

 knowledge of the real needs of either. Too often he believes himself a 

 law-giver. He spends one day or two investigating transportation 

 problems that three generations of shippers and railroad employes and 

 managers have struggled with. After a session of an hour with himself 

 and the study of magazine and newspaper clippings, he formulates 

 solutions which he hopes may be accepted by the public. 



He never had charge of a train in the face of a mile washout in a 

 storm, with an ax, a crowbar, and a lantern to make repairs. He knows 

 nothing of the game of chess involved in keeping a dozen trains of 

 constantly varying speed capacities moving on a single track over a 

 mountain top against another dozen to be kept moving in the opposite 

 direction, and all within a few hours of each other. But in an hour's 

 speech he can tell you that the railroad must be made to move its 

 freight with unvarying expedition or suffer. 



He does not consider that a railroad has not the slightest control 

 over the destinations of its own cars or the cars in its service. He 

 does not realize that the shipper says where these cars shall go and gives 



