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was not properly effected. If instead of a hundred cars a day we had 

 shipped but thirty, at that rate the fruit growers of this State would 

 have received a profit. They would have received returns at the rate of 

 $400 a car, and that would have been $1,000,000 to the fruit growers of 

 California. But what have we done? We have shipped three times the 

 amount; the railroad companies have swallowed up the bulk of the 

 receipts, and we have got nothing. Now, here is another thing. I will 

 give you some bitter pills to swallow, and I hope they will do you good. 

 I have seen fruit picked, packed, and shipped to the East, in light weight, 

 too — we are very smart — that I would have been ashamed to have fed to 

 a Berkshire pig. [Laughter.] Many of you have done so. You have 

 sent fruit that it would have been well to have kept at home. What 

 was the result? You may answer me that it is none of my business. I 

 will show you where it is. That fruit so sent to Chicago did not bring 

 half the freight charges. Now, I had some fruit go to Minneapolis, 

 Omaha, St. Louis, etc., and when that fruit was sold at from 40 to 70 

 cents a box I got a letter from Minneapolis, for instance, stating that 

 they had made a very good sale — they had sold mine for $1. They 

 saw the other selling in Chicago for 70 cents. For hardly was that fruit 

 sold in Chicago before the sales were reported in other places, and they 

 thought they were doing well to sell mine for $1. We have swindled 

 each other. The commission men were honest. They thought they were 

 selling for the market price. They did not know they were selling worms 

 with the fruit. That fruit was not fit to be shipped. I think we can 

 have influence with the railroad company by saying, "Gentlemen, if we 

 can get a certain rate we will ship so much; if not, none." But don't 

 send twenty-five cars to a market that is already overstocked. Every 

 place in the United States and Canada has been fed at your expense. 

 Now, gentlemen, this business of shipping fruit in that way should be 

 stopped. Let us see how little business we can do, and not how much. 

 I don't know anything about this assertion about fruit going over the 

 Northern Pacific to St. Paul and Minneapolis at so much less than over 

 California roads, but I know I have felt it. I know that I have received 

 letters stating that there was so much Oregon fruit there that the market 

 was demoralized, and I know that I didn't get anything for mine, and I 

 have not been shipping trash, either. We are all interested in that. 

 Now I hope that this committee will look at this question of shipping to 

 overstocked markets. It is more necessary for us to stop glutting the 

 Eastern markets than it is to get a reduction in rates. If we had shipped 

 but one third of the fruit that we shipped this last season we would 

 to-day have more dollars to our credit. While we are in the business of 

 finding fault, let us look at our own faults and let us correct them. Do 

 not understand me to say that I do not think the rates too high. I think 

 we ought to have lower rates. 



Now I will criticise the proposition of our friend from Placer. The 

 fruit growers of Placer say that unless they can get a reduction of one 

 half in the rate of transportation they will not ship. I cannot fully 

 agree with them. I am willing to do justice to the railroad as well as to 

 the fruit growers. Possibly a reduction of one half will not correct the 

 evil altogether. It is true that we are paying entirely too much. But 

 time is the essence of this contract. Were this July or August I would 

 willingly pay the rates that we are paying now, provided they would give 

 us five days from Sacramento to Chicago, than have them carry my fruit 



