THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 77 



competition with iis. We must meet him with a tariff, and let the 

 re\ision be upward. 



Something has been said about the uniform bill of lading. Now, 

 it is a fact that some four years ago the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission took up the matter of a uniform bill of lading, appointed a 

 commission composed of raihvay men and manufacturers from the 

 East, and they made a report on a uniform bill of lading Avhich in no 

 way recognizes the perishable product; and realizing that there must 

 be some good result from a uniform bill of lading, the International 

 Apple Shippers, through Mr. Scholand and others, took up the matter 

 and have filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission now, and it 

 is pending there, a uniform bill of lading perishable. And I had infor- 

 mation within the past two weeks to send out mailing matter to my 

 mailing list — and I will tell you all about that in a moment, and I 

 won't be but a moment about it — and I urged them to write the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission in favor of the uniform bill of 

 lading perishable, because it contains features as to claims filed, as to 

 icing charges, and other matters that no provision whatever is made 

 for in the bill of lading provided by the commission which I have spoken 

 of. And I wish that every one whose attention has been called to it 

 would show the Interstate Commerce Commission that he is interested 

 in that bill, for the idea has gone out that possibly the people in the 

 AVest don't care anything about it, because they have not been heard 

 from. I think the}^ will hear from some of them, because I am' getting 

 letters every day from Texas and Louisiana and AVashington people 

 who have written the Interstate Commerce Commission in favor of 

 the uniform bill of lading perishable. 



Now, just one mnre word about the tariff. The citrus industry is 

 located largely in California, next in Florida, and is gradually creeping 

 out through Texas and Arizona. As an industry itself it may be said 

 to be represented by only three or four states. We have been receiving 

 very favorable prices for the last two or three years. Other things have 

 brought the question up to me as to how we could best get before the 

 revision committee with our orange industry, and it occurred to me that 

 we could take the produce growers— and let me tell yovi there are hun- 

 dreds and hundreds of trucking associations all through the South and 

 the Southwest ; Texas has a hundred or more of them ; Florida, Loui- 

 siana, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, they are all growing 

 truck, not fruit particularly, but fruit and truck — and I started out 

 then to get a mailing list of those people who ought to be interested ; and 

 let me tell you, above all of them, the produce growers should be 

 interested; more, in fact, than the citrus fruit grower, because the 

 produce growers have no tariff that amounts to anything as against 

 Bermuda and the Islands. The result is that I have located a large 

 number of fruit and trucking associations and prominent growers 

 scattered in the places where I thought they would do the most good — 

 that is, in the South and Southwest. Those people down there, many 

 of them, are living on a tradition. That tradition was cotton and corn 

 and free trade years ago, but they are getting that out of their heads, 

 and you would be surprised, ladies and gentlemen, to see how many 

 letters I am receiving from all over the South and Southwest saying, 

 ' ' We are in sympathy with you ; tell us what we can do. " So I think 



