144 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS CONVENTION. 



issued would have upon that business, and, therefore, the responsibility 

 fell upon Secretary Wilson, the chief of the Agricultural Department. 

 When that order was issued which prevented the sale and distribution 

 of fruit products that carried a larger per cent of sulphur dioxid — 

 the residue after sulphur is used in curing fruit — of 350 milograms 

 per kilogram, or thirty-five thousandths of one per cent, it was imme- 

 diately discovered that so small a portion of sulphur dioxid was less 

 than that found in any of the cured fruit as it went to the market. 

 About that time, at the instance of fruit growers and fruit distributors, 

 a convention was called at the California State Board of Trade in San 

 Francisco to consider the question and to devise a method of relief, if 

 such relief was obtainable. That convention went carefully into a 

 discussion of the merits of the case and resolved, after a day's dis- 

 cussion, that the proper way to handle the matter was to select or 

 appoint an executive committee to take the matter in charge, and who 

 should have power to do what they deemed to be the proper thing under 

 the circumstances. I was made the chairman of that executive com- 

 mittee, not with the expectation of becoming an important factor in 

 the work, but in order that there might be a central point from which 

 this executive committee could work. My expectations were not quite 

 fulfilled. I was immediately appointed a committee of one to proceed 

 to Washington, take up the matter with the Agricultural Department 

 there, and see what could be done toward a modification of this ruling 

 of the department, No. 76. I was accompanied by a Mr. Brailsford, 

 who was appointed by the Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade 

 of Kings County, they bearing his expense. We proceeded to Wash- 

 ington, waited upon the Secretary cf Agriculture, who at first was not 

 very much inclined to heed the suggestions we made. But I want to 

 say to his credit that at the third interview we had with him and with 

 the Solicitor of the Department of Agriculture, we procured from the 

 department a modification of order 76. exactly in the nature and terms 

 which we asked for. We were able to convince Secretary Wilson that 

 this great fruit interest of California, which the people of this State 

 have for years — a quarter of a century — labored to build up, was 

 menaced to such an extent that in many respects it will be paralyzed 

 if order 76 prevailed. Later — only a very short time later — through 

 and by a letter which I prepared and forwarded to Senator Perkins — 

 the dean of the delegation from this State in Washington — an applica- 

 tion was made to the Secretary of Agriculture, a copy of which was 

 sent to President Roosevelt, in which letter the whole matter was pre- 

 sented in a way that seemed to carry conviction to both those officers. 

 President Roosevelt, with his usual earnestness and prompt action, 

 determined that something more than was being done in the Agricul- 

 tural Department or than could be done through the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry of that department, was necessary, and immediately created a 

 commission known as the Referee Board. That board is composed 

 of five as expert scientific chemists as there are in the United States, 

 and after this board was created the whole matter of the use of 

 sulphur and of benzoate of soda was referred to them, and on the 

 action of that board would rest the determination of our industry 

 here. The appointment of this board excited somewhat the opposi- 

 tion — I might say the enmity — of Dr. Wiley, the chief of the Bureau 



