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to the taxes the Southern Pacific Railroad imposes on us at every turn 

 and corner. 



Mr. Block: Mr. President, I rise for information. The resolution 

 offered by Mr. Kellogg gives the intimation that fruit has been more 

 cheaply carried from Oregon to the East than from here to the East. If 

 that is so I would like to know it, and would like to have a thorough 

 discussion on the matter, although I hope that all political references 

 and offensive expressions will be omitted. Let us have facts. I have 

 been told that fruit has been shipped from Oregon at the rate of $150 a 

 carload. I hope that this matter will be sifted down so that when we 

 criticise we can criticise justly, and I trust that Mr. Kellogg will give 

 us his authority for the intimation contained in his resolution. 



Mr. Kellogg: There are many persons who are better posted on this 

 point than I am, but it is understood to be a fact that green fruit rates 

 from Portland to Minneapolis are $150 a carload. And I want to say 

 further, I am informed that charges for refrigerator cars are very much 

 less from Oregon than from California. I understand that the charges 

 are but $25 for refrigeration, but I have no positive knowledge on that 

 point. 



Mr. B. Leonard, of Sacramento: I would state for the information of 

 the convention that I have some knowledge of fruit rates. I was 

 engaged two years in shipping fruit from Eastern Washington to a 

 point on the Snake River. The fruit rate was a cent and a quarter a 

 pound, the same as from California points. But the Union Pacific 

 owned every one of the refrigerator cars and made no charge for that 

 except the actual cost of the ice, which was very low, in the neighbor- 

 hood of $5 a ton. I think the average cost of refrigeration from those 

 points was probably not over $25 or $30 a car. I understand that the 

 Northern Pacific made the same arrangements, although I had no deal- 

 ings with them. That was two years ago this summer. 



Mr. Kellogg: I understand that the rates of freight have been 

 reduced since that time to $150 a car, and I think I have the evidence 

 of that fact. 



Mr. D. T. Fowler: I am from Fresno. Down there we have the 

 transportation problem. We all know the specious promises that were 

 made with regard to moving our fruit from California to Chicago, and 

 the promise of time that was given at the former convention at Los 

 Angeles. It has taken from two to over four days to bring a carload of 

 fruit from Fresno to Sacramento. Every fruit raiser knows that if a 

 car is loaded at Fresno with green fruit and moved to Collis or Tracy 

 and laid over there until some connection is made, and then moved to 

 Sacramento, consuming a period of from two to four days' time, that it 

 is of material injury to the fruit. We cannot expect under these con- 

 ditions to put our fruit into the Eastern markets in good shape. We 

 have to pay excessive freight rates just the same, and the railroad com- 

 pany say they cannot do the work at a less figure. This year our mules 

 are doing the work and competing with the railroad. [Applause.] 

 Last year from the town of Butler, six miles out from Fresno, the 

 line of road passed by the place that I am manager of. Five dol- 

 lars a car was what was charged on that road for coal and lumber, 

 but when I wanted to ship some green fruit to Fresno to have it 

 packed, it was $6 a car. I went before Mr. Fraser, the Superintendent 



