TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT -GROWERS' CONVENTION. 69 



to market this product for you until you get so strong that they see 

 that they are of no use and they will find something else to do. 



QUESTION. Are there any cooperative packing or seeding plants 

 in Fresno, and what percentage of the business do they do? 



Mr. KEARNEY. I think there must be some twelve or fifteen 

 cooperative packing-houses erected in Fresno by one selling agency, 

 and that selling agency also has a connection with a seeding plant; in 

 some way they are supplied with seeded raisins. The selling agency, 

 I think, is almost equal to any other agency in the sale of raisins. 

 They have done good work this year and last; and I think the results 

 of their labors as selling agents are quite satisfactory to the members. 



Mr. NAFTZGER. I am not quite satisfied yet. I do not object 

 specifically to the packers as purely packers. I said in my address 

 that the local association makes any arrangement it pleases about 

 packing — lets it out by contract or pays a percentage, or any other way 

 to suit themselves, and they are responsible for the result. A poor 

 pack is a poor price. My objection is where the packer is the selling 

 agent; that is my objection. It seems to me to be the correct policy 

 that no man can buy our product cheaper than any other man can buy 

 it. The price is alike to both men, with no privileges or dividing of 

 commissions. The buyer looks at the goods and buys them for what 

 they are and pays his money, and he knows very well that that brand 

 will not be sold at any price less than he pays for it. I am glad to 

 know that Mr. Kearney believes that principle to be right, but I believe 

 in getting to this thing now by one jump instead of two jumps. 



Senator JOHNSTON. I take pleasure in the remark of Mr. Kearney, 

 where he said he was not yet ready to give the growers a diploma on 

 their merits as good business men. I do not agree, however, with Mr. 

 Kearney in his organization plan; I do not agree with my friend on the 

 left [meaning Mr. Naftgzer] by taking this in one jump. We must 

 educate ourselves and our co-workers and make their prices such as the 

 market demands, and then there will be no trouble about having con- 

 sumers. I am not prepared to go into the organization with the middle- 

 men; that is the last thing I will agree to. I think the worst thing 

 for the growers of California will be an organization of that kind. If 

 you want the goods of California there is but one man to go to and he 

 fixes the price and we must pay it. The more shippers and packers in 

 the country the better it is for the fruit-grower. I am not prepared to 

 go into an organization of that kind, especially when they retain con- 

 trol. We should not attempt to bring the association of growers and 

 packers together, but the association of growers should control the crop 

 and handle the business. So far as the raisin-growers are concerned, 

 they will make contracts with the packers. You want to get the busi- 

 ness in such a shape that there will be no disintegration. The more 



