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poor we are. I would not like to tell of the mortgages that we have on 

 our land and the loads we have to carry. I would like to talk with the 

 committee, however, and tell them some serious facts. 



Mr. R. D. Stephens: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I doubt 

 very much whether I would have had anything to say during the session 

 of this convention had it not been for the remark of the gentleman from 

 Placer just now. I take issue with him upon that question. I believe 

 that the remedy for all the evils that exist to-day would be to do just 

 that which he seems afraid to do. Let the fruit growers of this State, 

 each and every one of them, make out a detailed statement of the 

 expense of the shipments, and the profits or the losses on the returns, 

 and let us go to work and subscribe money — because it takes money to 

 accomplish our purpose — and publish the facts to the people, and if 

 necessary pay for their insertion as an advertisement in the Eastern 

 journals. Probably we could not get those statements published in the 

 papers of California without paying for their insertion. Let us get the 

 facts published in order that we may protect our own interests. In the 

 past it has been the custom of the landed interests and other interests 

 in this State to publish only the gilt-edged and the beautiful, showing 

 the immense profits that have been made in fruit growing in this State. 

 They never have said a word about losses. People have been induced 

 to come to California and invest their money in lands at high prices, 

 setting out fruit trees and growing orchards, which have resulted in 

 heavy losses to them. Now I differ somewhat with some of the gentle- 

 men who have spoken upon this subject. I realize, as they admit, that 

 we can accomplish little if anything by being denunciatory. But I 

 believe if these facts were gathered and presented to the railroad com- 

 pany, and presented in an argumentative way, showing such results as 

 Mr. Madeley has depicted, showing that enormous shipments of fifteen 

 thousand or sixteen thousand packages of fruit have been made at great 

 loss to the growers, showing that it costs so much to place a box of fruit 

 in New York, and showing the gross returns, showing the cost of trans- 

 portation and commission, and making it easy to estimate the loss, I 

 believe that if that course were taken it would have a beneficial effect. 

 You can take the catalogues of the different houses in New York and in 

 the East, you can get the sales made through the auction houses, and it 

 is easy to estimate whether the shipper has made or lost. In ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred you will find that he has lost. You will 

 find that there has been no profit. Now we might as well look the facts 

 directly in the face, and if there can be no relief given in any way, if the 

 transportation rates are down to the lowest point and they cannot be 

 reduced, we might just as well understand first as last that the orchard 

 must come up; because it is a financial impossibility to grow fruit, and 

 pack it and ship it to the Eastern markets, and sell it at a loss. It is better 

 for us to look these facts squarely in the face, and if we cannot get relief, 

 then we must realize that there are too many fruit trees in the country. 

 Now, in regard to cooperation. There are many things which have 

 been said here that are worthy of consideration. For instance, my 

 friend and fellow-townsman, Mr. AVeinstock, to whom the fruit growers 

 of California are probably under more obligations than to any one in- 

 dividual, because it was through him that the auction system was intro- 

 duced, from which great good resulted to the fruit growers; I find that 

 he is a strenuous advocate of cooperation. 



