— 66 — 



Mr. Smurr: Well, we are enabled still to exist. We have other busi- 

 ness besides this through freight business. We have other transconti- 

 nental business; and other business besides. Now I wish to say a word 

 with regard to the Placer County people. Their resolutions were of 

 course transmitted to the Southern Pacific Company. Of course we 

 recognized the interest that our people had in that matter, and that it 

 was bound up with their interest. Our agent in Placer County took up 

 the subject, and we wrote him a letter on the general topic of freight 

 rates, not intending it for publication, but simply to fortify him with 

 some arguments so that he might discuss the situation with his neigh- 

 bors from the carrier's standpoint; and with your permission I will run 

 this over hastily: 



San Francisco, September 6, 1894. 



Seeing that the value of the fruit crop of this State depends in so large measure on the 

 capacity and inclination of overland carriers to transport to markets beyond the borders 

 of this State, in the most satisfactory time and at the most favorable rates the conditions 

 to be met justify, it is no wonder fruit grow r ers attach the importance they do to the posi- 

 tion of the carriers, and I can assure them this company is fully alive to the urgencies 

 of the business, and the fact that this tonnage development is of very great importance 

 to the carriers interested in California's w T elfare. If the fruit growers cannot handle their 

 fruit at a profit, fruit growing is likely to receive a serious setback; if, therefore, the car- 

 riers are negligent as to results to the fruit growers, the policy in doing so is simply a 

 suicidal one, and must react on the transportation interests. The narrow view with 

 which the public journals sometimes credit the railroads, viz., that of simply trying to 

 squeeze the present dollar out of the business without regard for the future, is therefore 

 simply absurd, for the carrier's interest in the prosperity of fruit growing and fruit cult- 

 ure is in the aggregate much greater than the interest of any individual fruit grower. 

 I state the matter thus for the purpose of asking you to bear in mind that any theory is 

 false which assumes, or pretends to assume, that the carriers are indifferent to the fruit 

 grower's welfare, and regard it as little or none of their business, for the interests are 

 more mutual than the casual observer perceives. This company has so large a mileage 

 in the State of California that whatever hurts the development of any industry of the 

 State, hurts the railroad. If the charges for transportation of green fruit are higher than 

 warranted by the price the fruit will fetch in the markets to which transported, that is 

 an element which works against this company's interest. This company is not unmind- 

 ful of the possibility of this danger. How to remedy the situation is the grave problem. 

 Those not engaged in the business of fruit culture underestimate the anxieties, expense, 

 and risk incident to fruit growing, which is evident almost any time, by the readiness 

 w T ith w T hich you can find people not in the fruit business taking a piece of paper and 

 figuring out to their own satisfaction the handsome returns that can be secured from 

 investments in fruit lands. In precisely the same way those not engaged in the business 

 of transportation can promptly figure out vast returns from present rates charged for 

 transportation of fruit, drawing' from the figures so made the conclusion that these rates 

 could be greatly reduced, and still leave a reasonable profit to the carrier. Just as glow- 

 ing profits of fruit culture are thus figured out readily in theory. So it is in figuring the 

 carrier's profit. If this company could reduce the cost of transportation of green fruit to 

 the Eastern markets just one half what it is to-day, there is nothin g that would be more 

 entirely satisfactory to the company, but unfortunately the conditions under which the 

 carriers operate in their business are of controlling force, just as are the conditions in 

 other business, when it proves unwise to handle business below cost of production and 

 shipment. To explain : To and including August 31st last, 4,282 carloads of green fruit 

 had been shipped this season, practically all being refrigerator cars — that is, 3,695 of 

 them. The average refrigerator weighs about 22 tons without its load ; into this refrig- 

 erator are loaded 12 tons of fruit and say 4 tons of ice. Refrigerators during the green 

 fruit season cannot be held at Eastern points for loading, because if they w-ere so held 

 the refrigerator companies would run out of equipment at this end, and shippers would 

 have no cars in which to forward their fruit. This may be summed up as follows : 



Itefrigerator car, non-paying dead weight, east bound 22 tons. 



Load of green fruit in car, east bound 12 tons. 



Ice in car to refrigerate the fruit, east bound 4 tons. 



Total dead weight, east bound 38 tons. 



Refrigerator returning empty to California, w T est bound 22 tons. 



Total dead weight 60 tons. 



Of this there is but 12 tons of freight to pay the charges of transportation. It takes 

 money to do business, and it is not surprising that it proves difficult for shippers to 

 derive profit for themselves from 12 tons of fruit and pay, besides the cost of hauling 60 



