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I am talking very earnestly. When a man sees his mortgage growing 

 bigger and bigger every day he can't help talking earnestly. The Cali- 

 fornia farmer does not appreciate the condition he is in. He has got 

 the world by the throat if he knew it, and it is nothing but the want 

 of the appreciation of his power that keeps him poor as a slave. He 

 makes the wealth of the nation, and then he seems to be satisfied with 

 taking a contemptible portion of that wealth as his, and allowing the 

 other fellow to enjoy the remainder. I am tired of it. And, my friends r 

 I will tell you that I wish I had a voice loud enough to 'send all 

 around these United States of America to wake up the wealth pro- 

 ducers of the nation to a sense of their importance and their power. 

 [Applause.] It does not seem impossible to get the producers to see 

 their interest and to get them to stick to some plan by which they will 

 secure that interest. Of all classes, the farming class seems to be the 

 most difficult to form an organization among. And I am one of them. 

 I have found it difficult to get even three men to stand in line long 

 enough to count them. Our attempt at organization failed because 

 1,200 carloads stayed out and but 1,800 came in. The first thing w r e 

 knew those 1,800 who w T ere in were selling their goods in the East on 

 consignment. Now, gentlemen, I am in for anything on earth. [Laugh- 

 ter.] And I think our people down where I live will be, after their 

 experience of this year. If you will not take us into this dried fruit 

 arrangement or into a fruit arrangement by which raisins can be 

 included, some of us have- made up our minds to organize an independ- 

 ent Raisin Exchange. We have determined to see what can be done by 

 an independent organization. Lands in our country that have had $300 

 an acre expended on them, cannot be sold to-day for more than $40 or $50 

 an acre. That is the condition we are in, and we are growing worse. 

 Values are depreciating. There are men who to-day have $50,000 worth 

 of property over and above their debts, who if they were closed out by 

 the mortgages upon their places, would be in the middle of the road 

 without a home or a dollar. That is the condition of things with the 

 farmers in that country. I don't know but it is so in the rest of the 

 State, but I do know it is our condition down there. And I tell you, 

 friends, it is our own fault, for not standing together. I do hope that 

 something will be done at this convention that will place the fruit 

 growers of California upon a basis which will enable them to save this 

 great industry from destruction. [Applause.] 



Mr. Adams, of the committee to w T hom was referred the resolutions 

 offered by Mr. Weinstock, reported favorably upon them, and recom- 

 mended their adoption. 



F. M. Righter, of Campbells: We do not make this report just now 

 for the purpose of cutting off discussion in regard to cooperation in the 

 marketing and sale of dried fruit. I do not know whether you have 

 discussed that question as much as you desire. But to my mind there 

 is a system of selling that we have never touched here, for the reason 

 that we seem to be afraid of it. It seems to me that system has an 

 element in it that is very essential to success, and one that we will find 

 ourselves obliged to make use of if we achieve success. By that plan 

 we will be enabled to sell at less price, and yet get more money than 

 we get now. It enables the one who buys of us to buy at a lower price 

 than he is paying now, and yet we get more money for our product. 



I believe that all of our dried fruits should be sold by the Exchange 



