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that you are so ignorant, dishonest, jealous, and suspicious that you 

 will not trust each other, and hence cannot cooperate. Do you sup- 

 pose they have a better opinion of themselves than they do of you? 

 What is your opinion of them? Better than theirs of you? Many 

 fruit growers are either retired business men, or those still actively 

 engaged in business. Are they less capable and honest than men not 

 producers? Are they not more in sympathy with the fruit growers than 

 those not engaged in that business? 



Other things being equal, is it not wisest to trust those whose inter- 

 ests are not identical with yours, or, in other words, to trust yourselves 

 rather than those not in sympathy with you? The reasonable pre- 

 sumption is that you will do your own business at a cost, rather than 

 pay a great deal more to have others do it for you. You are not seek- 

 ing means of keeping your income down nor of making a further reduc- 

 tion. 



The fruit growers' cooperative associations of this State prove that 

 you are trying to decrease your expenses, and thus increase your 

 income. They also prove that you do not lack the capacity to do your 

 own business, and are not afraid to trust each other both in the prepa- 

 ration and sale of your products, and further, that you can do something 

 toward self-protection. The truth is, that you have not only shown the 

 ability to protect yourselves through these organizations, but also to 

 protect the wholesale buyers and jobbers throughout the entire country. 

 While the prices of dried fruit have been and still are ruinously low, 

 no one pretends to say how much lower they would have gone had it 

 not been for the course pursued by these organizations. They steadied 

 and maintained the prices in spite of all the efforts made to force them 

 lower. They have been giving and will continue to give the jobbers 

 well nigh a guaranteed price, and that, too, in an off year. By this 

 course they hoped to obtain for this year's labor at least a poor living. 

 It was the only course that gave hope of ever securing that much. Had 

 they acted less wisely, you would doubtless not have obtained for your 

 fruit the cost of production. 



Before the fruit of the State can be sold at the least possible cost 

 it must all be accurately graded, thus producing grades that will be 

 identical throughout. Type samples of each of these different grades 

 can be furnished to every carload buyer in the United States and 

 Canada, as well as to all large foreign buyers. With these samples 

 before them they can buy through the Exchange understandingly, even 

 though not represented at the sale either in person or by a broker. The 

 Exchange would, of course, have to guarantee the fruit sold to be of 

 the same grade as the sample. By the aid of a modern fruit grader 

 the fruit can be quickly, cheaply, and accurately graded. This done, 

 the Exchange would risk but little by guaranteeing the fruit. 



The Exchange method keeps the buyers and sellers in the closest 

 possible touch, which relation is very important to both parties. The 

 producers are in position to give the facts relating to the supply, and the 

 jobber's position enables him to give the facts relating to the demand. 

 The law of supply and demand may be relied upon to govern the price, 

 when both parties know about what the supply and demand are. For 

 either party to attempt to deceive the other with reference to either the 

 supply or demand is not business, since the effort serves to accomplish 

 little, if anything, more than to destroy confidence in each other. 



