14 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 



ADDRESS OF MR. C. C. CHAPMAN. 



Mr. Chairman: First, I want to thank Mr. Jeffrey for the thoughtf ill- 

 ness in giving a place on the programme to this part of our industry. 

 I think it was very wise that the grower should be well informed on all 

 branches of our very great industry. Mr. Lyon has told you something 

 about the greatness of it, but I want to tell you it has grown so enor- 

 mously, it has got so very big, that we must look to not only the horticul- 

 tural end of it, but the business end as well. These very growers are 

 too wise and long-headed to point their head always to the ground and 

 look into the fertile soil, possibly to raise them up to admire their beau- 

 tiful trees, without thinking of the marketing of this great product 

 which they are growing. And therefore this Protective League comes 

 in and attends to a large amount of absolutely important business which 

 can not be done by the growers separately. 



We remember how we used to meet before this organization was 

 formed — some great question would come up, and the growers would be 

 called together in an indiscriminate sort of way. We would meet and 

 have a scrap over the question, and go away and accomplish nothing. 

 You smile about it, because you knoAv it is true. Some of the newcomers 

 to California don't understand that. But we were going through a 

 process of evolution, and I think we have crystallized a system by which 

 the industry, as a whole, will be guarded as it could not possibly have 

 been done under the old method. 



Now, this league, we might say, is a non-partisan proposition. It 

 does not belong to the exchange: it does not belong to the shippers: it 

 just belongs to all of us. And right here I want to emphasize what ]\Ir. 

 Lyon said with reference to everybody being interested in it. If you 

 are not a shipper, you can insist on the man who handles your fruit being 

 interested in this league for your own protection, because, just as Mr. 

 Lyon said, and we all realize, this tariff revision is going to be opened. 

 A lot of fellows will never be satisfied until it is; and when it is. we 

 have got to be right on the spot, well fortified to protect our citrus 

 industry. (Applause.) And it is precisely like it was when we went 

 to the presidents of the railroads. 



Now, I make the assertion that this reduction which was obtained by 

 this league could never have been obtained in the old-fashioned way. 

 I know a great many of the growers said, "Why don't you fellows do 

 something? Why did we elect you? You ain't doing anything." 

 All the time we were working, and we got this reduction without ten 

 people in Southern California knowing ami:hing about it. But we 

 were working. You had confidence in the men. and they were working, 

 and they got it. But I want to tell you why. We had a secretary who 

 compiled, collated, all the information. He brought it before the presi- 

 dent. I remember Mr. Ripley said he didn't understand a good deal of 

 this information, and if certain things were true, he would be very glad 

 to look into it. Now, the league knew all about it, collated the informa- 

 tion, selected the men to go to the president, did it all quietly, and the 

 railroad didn't want to fight at all — although I do remember the remark 

 Mr. Eipley made when we went in to interview him first. He sat back 

 in his chair and said, "Well, I giiess you gentlemen are in for another 

 fight. We have just ^^iiipped you to a finish." That is just when he 



