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Mr. Fowler: What arrangements have been made by which we could 

 get a schedule of time for green fruit from Fresno to Sacramento? This 

 year it has been exceedingly unfortunate. 



Mr. Smurr: This year was an exceedingly unfortunate year for us all. 

 In some instances our engines were crippled, and we were unable by 

 reason of the strike to do the work satisfactory to ourselves or to our 

 patrons. 



[Mr. Curtis and Mr. Smurr requested to be excused, as they had to 

 take the train for the City.] 



Mr. B. N. Rowley: I have a letter here from several shippers of cher- 

 ries in Alameda County, which is pertinent to the subject under discus- 

 sion by this convention. They ask that the matter of time for early 

 shipments of green fruits be so regulated that the shipments of cherries 

 can receive expedited service. In other words, they ask that the cherry 

 shippers of Alameda County be allowed to participate in the benefit of 

 expedited service. They claim that the present freight rate is not bur- 

 densome, provided the time required in transportation is shorter. And 

 they claim in this letter that unless the time is shortened so that it can 

 be made in 120 hours to Chicago, that they will be unable to ship cher- 

 ries from Alameda next season. And they are fearful that even if the 

 railway company grants that through service on special time, that it 

 will commence so late in the season, on peaches, and will not commence 

 early enough for cherries, so that they will not have the benefit of the 

 expedited time in cherry shipments. And they want to urge this mat- 

 ter upon the transportation committee. This is a prayer from the 

 cherry shippers of Alameda County. 



Gen. Chipman: I do not know that anything can be accomplished 

 by further discussion. Now that Mr. Curtis and Mr. Smurr have gone 

 we have no one upon whom we can impress ourselves except it be this 

 committee. Now, in my view the question of the success of fruit 

 growing in this State rests upon this very problem now under discus- 

 sion; and not with reference to the shipment of dried fruit especially, 

 or the shipment of green fruit especially. I do not, as a fruit 

 grower, complain of the time or of the rates upon dried fruit. 

 I do not, as a fruit grower, complain of the rates, outside of 

 refrigeration; but I do complain of any system of shipment which 

 excludes me from the privilege of the low rate and drives me into an 

 expense of double what ought to be imposed upon me and which prac- 

 tically destroys all my profits. Now, the evolution in our case seems 

 to be such as to indicate that we have evolved ourselves backwards. 

 In our efforts to get ourselves out of our difficulties we have been getting 

 into greater ones. We have jumped from the frying-pan into the fire. 

 We had a fair rate with a promise of quick time in ventilated cars a year 

 or two ago. But whether by manipulation, designedly effected, I will 

 not say; at any rate, through the circumstances which surrounded that 

 character of shipments by ventilated cars we were driven to refrigera- 

 tor cars and our expenses were doubled. Now I have been told — I 

 don't know how true it is — that the railroad company has profited by 

 this, not only indirectly, but directly, by enjoying part of the profits of 

 this refrigeration. The whole system is wrong. It should be done 

 away with. Now, I don't believe in approaching the railroad people in 

 any different way from that in which I would approach any other busi- 

 ness man. I think we are largely responsible for having gone at this 



