TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FEUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 47 



half a dozen men, and the man who now conducts that organization 

 would have been wholly unable to organize it had it not been for the 

 self-sacrificing manner of these men. We must have our ablest men, 

 but those ablest men must be supported by men of good judgment. If 

 we are going to do anything we must begin at once — there is not a day 

 to be lost; the talk of postponing it until April or May is absurd. We 

 must get at it without delay, when we consider the magnitude of this 

 matter. 



Mr. BIGHTER. How do you propose to get the people out and 

 talk to them upon this matter? 



Mr. SPR AGUE. We have found the proposition of local organizations 

 in the different districts an excellent one. Wherever you can get half 

 a dozen men whose interest you can secure, there you have a nucleus 

 for an organization. 



Mr. RIGHTER. What I mean is, how are you going to get the 

 people to understand what you want and what you are trying to do? 

 Would you go to the schoolhouses of the different districts and talk to 

 the people and tell them what to do? 



Mr. SPRAGUE. Yes; that is about the way to* do it. 



Mr. GORDON. I am going to answer one remark, or rather an 

 assertion, that was made. It was. said, "There is too much importance 

 placed on one man," referring to Mr. Kearney. Now that is probably 

 true. But you know there is a tendency among human beings — at 

 least with Americans — to magnify the importance of one man. As an 

 example: When the Sunday-school teacher said, " Who slew the Philis- 

 tines?" one little fellow rose up and said, "Dewey." It shows the 

 tendency of the American people to idolize one man. The raisin-growers 

 were organized: First, we got our people down to such an impoverished 

 condition that they would grasp at a straw. And for that reason I 

 do not believe that the people of Santa Clara Valley are poor enough 

 at this time for organization. Wait until about twelve months longer, 

 until you have got a good rainy season and one hundred and fifty million 

 pounds of prunes on hand and forced to sell those prunes for a cent a 

 pound. For many long years I have heard the people of this valley 

 boast of their valuable lands. As I stated yesterday, I can recollect 

 when, only a few years ago, you w T ere selling your prunes for 10 and 12 

 cents a pound — that is, about ten or twelve years ago. We were then 

 selling raisins for 5 cents a pound, which was a good price on the 

 investment. Prices went down until we got only from $17.50 to $22 a 

 ton for our product. You can readily understand that, where it costs 

 $45 per ton to produce an article and the producers are forced, for a 

 year or two, to sell that article for from $17 to $22 a ton, his finish is 

 near at' hand. I do not know the cost of prunes. But if you get them 

 down to thirty cents on the dollar of what it costs to produce them, you 

 will have an organization here. How to get the people to organize is 



