TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



15 



Equally serious is the demoralizing effect on Ihe commerce of the country. As long- 

 as these spurious nostrums are sold at enormous profits, which enrich the unscrupulous 

 and dishonest, the fair, honest goods are forced by this competitor to go begging for 

 meager profits, and in many instances are forced out of the markets and the honest 

 dealer compelled to quit business. 



Both producer and consumer suffer. The producers of food products— the entire 

 agricultural population — suffer immeasurable hardships and wrongs when their honest, 

 home-made products, their butter, their fruits and jellies, their syrups and sugars, come 

 into competition with counterfeits whose cost is but slight and whose selling price is 

 95 per cent clear profit. 



The other half of the community suffer the imposition of this continuous stream of 

 spurious frauds upon their stomachs and purses. And all this is for the benefit of only 

 a few hundred manufacturers, whose sole objection to the proposed legislation is that it 

 will injure their business. 



In the opinion of your committee, Congress owes to our producers the duty of pro- 

 tection against counterfeit articles of production, and to our consumers a protection 

 against fraudulent arid deceptive articles of consumption. It is the belief of your com- 

 mittee that, [whenever commerce in this country is readjusted upon a proper plane, so 

 that every article shall be sold for what it is, no heathful product will be despoiled of a 

 market, but that all products will find more ready consumption, each on its own merits 

 and each reaping a fair and legitimate profit when it comes into the field of competition 

 under its own true color and its true name. 



It gives a fair and honest article a fair and honest opportunity in the competitive 

 field of commerce. 



It will have the effect of readjusting commerce of food and drug products upon a 

 proper plane, where each product will be sold for just what it actually is, will reap a fair 

 and legitimate profit, and no article will be despoiled of its market by a spurious com- 

 petitor. 



Believing that counterfeit goods which are traded for honest dollars should be placed 

 under the same ban as counterfeit dollars traded for honest goods, this committee 

 recommends that the bill H. R. 3109 do pass. 



The latest adulterant to which my attention was called was taken 

 from the "Cosmos," Paris, February 14th, written by Paul Combres: 

 "That ordinary sawdust has for several years been a favorite ingredient 

 of. cheap flours and cereal foods — that these suspected articles contained 

 no less than 40 per cent of wood sawdust." 



That our Legislature in California should continue making laws 

 governing the labels on foods, drugs, and drinks, without any provision 

 for the enforcement, is farcical; and proves conclusively that they have 

 neither the comprehension nor ability to cope with this evil. 



The vast capital and accumulated fortunes that have been made by 

 this system of fraud are too great perhaps for us to hope for any relief in 

 our struggle, and we may be doomed for the time being to servitude to 

 ill-gotten gains. 



Distribution of Fruits. — This subject concerns the growers to a greater 

 degree than all others. With proper distribution, we will have success. 

 With improper distribution, we will have failure. 



I have understood that the Southern California Citrus Fruit Exchange 

 has merged with other shippers and associations and that the merger 

 controls 87 per cent of all the citrus fruits. Under these conditions it 



