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lived in a palace or a poor-house. Individual fruit growers counted 

 their losses by thousands of dollars. Not only were goods in transit 

 ruined, but millions of pounds of fruit destined for shipment had to rot 

 in the orchards; while the stagnation of trade and consequent depression 

 have ruined the whole season's business. 



Now, though I gladly seize this opportunity to express my sympathy 

 with you all in the losses you have sustained, I am not here to cry over 

 spilt milk. 



The question all naturally ask themselves is, " How can we avert this 

 evil in future?" " Is there no way to prevent its recurrence?" 



Let me suggest my plan. If I want to send a pound of goods from 

 Monterey to San Francisco the Southern Pacific Railroad will charge 

 me 25 cents to take it as far as their depot at Fourth and Townsend 

 Streets, whence the consignee has to fetch it. But I am a member of a 

 cooperative association. My association will take a pound of a certain 

 kind of goods from Sacramento to New York for one cent, and deliver 

 it at the house of the consignee. Or for 12 cents they will take a pound 

 from Sacramento to Mexico, or the West Indies, or Newfoundland. 

 This cooperative association has its cars on every main railroad, and we 

 call it the Post Office Department of the United States Government. 



Now, it has for years occurred to many of us that it would be a very 

 desirable thing if we could induce the members of this grand coopera- 

 tive association to take in hand all the transportation of the nation. 

 Tnere seems no valid reason why those high-roads of the nineteenth 

 century, the railroads, should not be as much the property of the people 

 as are the old high-roads where rails are not used. 



There are very many reasons why they should be apart from the 

 regularity of the service and the freedom from strikes. 



Cheap transportation is the life of commerce, and it is of first impor- 

 tance to the well-being of a community that it should be performed at 

 as nearly the cost of the service as possible. Railroad companies, on 

 the other hand, insist on a basis of " all the traffic will bear." This,, 

 as I said last year at Los Angeles, usually means all the producer will 

 bear, and frequently that is all the tree will bear. The railroad plausi- 

 bly calls this the " value of the service." What we want are rates based 

 on the cost of the service. 



Here's an example that a railroad conductor once gave me. Said he, 

 "I have hauled out a train of forty cars of produce from Santa Maria 

 to San Francisco, for which the railroad received $100 a car. The total 

 cost to the company did not exceed $3 50 per car, including everything, 

 from interest to axle grease." The farmer could not get his grain 

 hauled for less, so he had to pay the " value of the service" $100, while the 

 " cost of the service " was only $3 50. I think we all agree that while 

 the " value of the service " may suit the railroad pretty well, the " cost 

 of the service " would be good enough for the producer. 



One more example from Los Angeles. Some years ago potatoes were 

 high priced in Arizona. In Los Angeles they were cheap. A shipper 

 saw a way, as he thought, to make some money. He went to the rail- 

 road office and asked their rates on potatoes to Arizona points. 



"What are they worth here?" 



"Half a cent per pound." 



" And how much are they worth in Arizona?" 

 " Four cents and a half." 



