TRANSACTIONS OF SECOND DAY. 



Wednesday, November 21, 1894. 



[Chairman Buck in the chair.] 



TRANSPORTATION AND FREIGHT RATES ON GREEN AND 

 DRIED FRUITS— (RESUMED). 



Geo. D. Kellogg, of Placer: I beg to introduce the following resolution: 



Whereas, Experience of the past has clearly demonstrated that the great horticult- 

 ural interests of the State have been seriously crippled by excessive transportation 

 charges on fresh fruits to our legitimate markets ; and whereas, it being a fact that 

 other large fruit districts of the Pacific Slope do obtain a much better transportation 

 rate, thus bringing our interests into an unequal and unfair competition against any 

 such fruit-growing sections ; therefore, be it 



Resolved, That the Committee on Transportation and Freight Rates, which has been 

 appointed by the Chair, in accordance with the programme of the convention, is hereby 

 directed to confer at the earliest practicable moment with the transportation lines, to 

 secure a sufficient reduction in transportation rates to place us on an equal footing with 

 other fruit-producing sections of the Pacific Slope, and at a rate that will enable us as 

 growers and shippers of green fruits to continue our business on a living basis. 



A FRUIT GROWER'S IDEAS ON TRANSPORTATION. 



By Edward Berwick, of Monterey. 



When a preacher rises to exhort the brethren he usually selects an 

 appropriate text. I have chosen mine from a discourse by Mr. W. H. 

 Mills, the Laud Agent of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Said he at the 

 October meeting of the State Board of Trade: "The other day a man 

 came into my office overjoyed to find that the net return of a carload 

 of fruit was 25 cents. I failed to see the reason for his joy, when he 

 explained that it was the first carload that had been shipped for some 

 time which had not shown a loss of from $25 to $50." 



One of the first duties of a preacher is to be sure the text he is about 

 to expound is true. I feel sure that only too many fruit growers here 

 to-day have had its truth driven home by similar bitter experience. 

 Mr. Mills' visitor, you too well know, spoke the truth. What, then, 

 became of the money the fruit sold for? It went where the wealth of 

 the country is all gradually going — into the coffers of the octopus. 

 What are you going to do about it? 



The Los Angeles Fruit Growers' Convention of 1893 passed a resolu- 

 tion commending to horticulturists the careful study and consideration 

 of the question of the nationalization (or Government ownership) of 

 railroads. I do not doubt but that all of you have obeyed the recom- 

 mendation. The study of railroad affairs has been most urgently and 

 unpleasantly forced upon you. The railroad strike of last July caused 

 loss and hardship to almost every citizen of this republic, whether he 



