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boxes of fruit were shipped and what kind of fruit it was, and the result 

 of those shipments, and not that John Smith has lost so much and 

 Henry Brown has lost so much, that it would enable the railroad com- 

 pany to arrive at a clear idea of the situation. We could say to the 

 railroad company, "Here are facts." The committee could go to the 

 railroad company at the proper time and place these facts before them, 

 and put forth their most earnest efforts to secure a reduction of rates, 

 and I believe that in that way more can be accomplished than in any 

 other manner, unless we tax ourselves to get up a statistical statement 

 of facts and publish it to the world. 



Mr. Motheral: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: If I did not say some- 

 thing now I would feel when I went home that I had not done what my 

 conscience dictated. The gentleman from Placer seemed to be afraid to 

 tell the truth. I wish to say that there is but one way by which we can 

 ever build up California as a State. There is but one way by which we 

 can ever build up a community or build up a man, and that is by a 

 square and truthful statement of facts. And I would feel that I was 

 dishonest if I induced a "tenderfoot" to come to California and buy 

 my land, and lift me out of financial difficulty at his expense. I have 

 friends to-day that I could inveigle into buying by telling them golden 

 stories of profits, and I could have copied those stories from real estate 

 journals and lied by proxy, and eased my conscience a little. There is 

 but one way by which we can put this business upon an honest basis. 

 There is but one way by which we can ever make the railroads feel our 

 necessities, and that is by telling the truth. And we can tell them 

 squarely and fairly that this business is bankrupting the country, and 

 that unless they give us relief we will soon have no fruit to ship, and 

 that the result will be on their own heads in the end. That sort of 

 argument they can appreciate, and they will. Now, I most earnestly 

 protest against anything untrue being said or done in this assembly 

 that will go out to the world; because we will reap the harvest in the 

 end. The harvest that we are reaping to-day is the result of our folly 

 in former years. We have not told the truth. We have made the rail- 

 road believe that we were making immense profits, and they, working on 

 the principle of charging all the traffic will bear, have fixed their freight 

 rates accordingly. Now this gentleman who comes here and wants to 

 go before the committee privately and tell them how the fruit growers in 

 Placer are situated, should have the courage to come before the conven- 

 tion and tell the truth squarely. The sooner we realize that we have got 

 to tell the truth about the situation, the better it will be for us. 



Mr. Block: I fully concur with Mr. Motheral. We know that Placer 

 County has passed resolutions that they will stop shipping altogether 

 unless they can get half rates. That tells us more than any gentleman 

 can tell us. I believe they are sincere. Now, gentlemen, in connection 

 with this transportation question, I believe there is another question that 

 we ought to consider. I believe there are others to blame besides the rail- 

 road company. Let us take the bitter pill and swallow it. It may do 

 us good. We ourselves are much to blame. After the strike we shipped 

 from Sacramento a hundred carloads and over a day. Where was our 

 sense? That fruit was not sufficiently distributed. Our agents have 

 robbed us. We always want to find fault with other men. It is our 

 folly, our craziness, that we shipped three or four times as much as we 

 ought to have shipped, and our mismanagement that the distribution 



