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whole crop this year, but the railroad company has charged from 65 to 

 82^ per cent of the total result. Now, if it is a fact that they cannot 

 carry our fruits to market for any less figure than they have been doing 

 we will have to stand it. But I don't believe it is. I am not despondent. 

 I believe just as much in the future of the California fruit industry as 

 I ever did. I believe these difficulties will be adjusted. And this great 

 corporation will see that it is to the interest of their own pocket to make 

 an adjustment, when they see that the fruit growers mean business. 

 . When we come up as one man and say that we must have these things, 

 that it is consistent, that it is right, and we know by figures and facts 

 that it is possible to transport our products cheaper than they have been 

 transported, I feel that we can carry our point. 



One thing that illustrates the disposition of the company to over- 

 charge is the fact that they charge as much to send a carload of fruit to 

 Denver as they do to Chicago, although there is a difference of 600 miles 

 in favor of Denver. Now, if they can carry a carload of fruit to Chicago 

 for a certain price, they certainly can carry it to Denver for less. I 

 believe it is time for the railroad to make concessions. If they will not, 

 it is time for us to look for some other way out of our difficulty. It is 

 time for us to have a competing line. I believe there are men and 

 money enough in California to put this line through. Gentlemen, 

 unless we do get concessions from the railroad this will be the inevitable 

 result. For do you believe that we are going to sit down, with the 

 public spirit that there is in California, and submit to these impositions? 

 We can have our own line across if we will. As has been said, it would 

 be a grand thing if the public should own the transcontinental lines. 

 It has been said here that that relief, if it comes, will come after our 

 day; that we will never get the benefit of it. But I feel that we have 

 the remedy in our hands now — within a few years, within a year or two. 

 And I want to say this, do not think that any one in Placer County is 

 despondent, and is going out of the fruit business by reason of the out- 

 look. We mean business; we are here for that purpose, and we are 

 going to stay. [Applause.] 



Mr. Wilcox, of Santa Clara: I believe that the remedy is in our own 

 hands. I came to the metropolis of this coast when it was a little 

 village. It is true that to-day you can send goods from the East to 

 Tacoma and Portland, and sell them cheaper than you can in the San 

 Francisco market; and that is why the transportation company has 

 been organized — to redeem San Francisco and save this beautiful State 

 from destruction. I was told in Tacoma that as a matter of fact they 

 can sell goods cheaper there than they can in San Francisco, on account 

 of freight rates. Ten years ago the railroad folks charged $800 a car- 

 load to take out fruit. And shippers at that time made more money 

 than they do under present prices. Why? Because fruit was high. 

 Mr. Porter, who was working on a ranch at $75 a month, went into the 

 . business of shipping fruit, and it made him wealthy. He made more 

 than a million dollars in early days. Times have changed since then, 

 but we have not changed with them. Two years ago there had not 

 been a carload of fruit left off at Buffalo, which is 500 miles this side of 

 New York, and all the fruit they had was reshipped from New York 

 back there. That was in line of proper development of a market. We 

 must continue our efforts to properly develop our market. I believe, 

 with the Chairman, that if we go to the railroad companies and ask for 



