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OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



cutting and slashing you have the more danger you are in. The grower 

 can always set up any number of packing-houses upon a month's 

 notice; he is never at the mercy of the packer. I desire to use the 

 skill and ability of the dealer to market our fruits when he will do it 

 according to our views and in our interest. That is all the point I wish 

 to make. 



Mr. NAFTZGER. So do I, but as a rule he doesn't. My theory is, 

 instead of enabling the speculator to build and own the packing-houses, 

 let the association make that percentage of profit and do its own pack- 

 ing. I am driving at the proposition that the producer pays the revenue 

 every time. The producer has to pay all the bills, all the percentages, 

 all the profits for all the packing-houses and for all the skill that is 

 employed. Now, why don't he employ it directly and pay simply what 

 it is worth in the markets without the speculating profits in it? 



QUESTION. Does the Southern Exchange do it that way? 



Mr. NAFTZGER. Yes, we cut them all off at the neck. 



QUESTION. What does it cost to market your fruit for two suc- 

 cessive years ? 



Mr. NAFTZGER. It has cost us about three per cent on the sales. 

 No other product in California has been marketed at three per cent of 

 the cost. 



Mr. KEARNEY. What percentage of the crop of oranges of Cali- 

 fornia has Mr. Naftzger's association got under its control, and if it 

 had the whole of the crop of California under its control wouldn't it 

 put the price of oranges much higher than they are to-day? 



Mr. NAFTZGER. Well, I suppose I am expected to answer that. 

 In the first place, in the beginning of our organization we had approxi- 

 mately ninety per cent of the crop, but as I told you yesterday, we had 

 it by including all sorts of heresies, isms, and idiosyncrasies. We had 

 some of the leading packers and shippers in Southern California in the 

 association. They were in the organization, but it would not work; it 

 had too many bosses and too many side issues, and too many beliefs 

 and opinions. I want to emphasize what Mr. Kearney said about con- 

 centrating the power and authority: Don't imagine that every fellow 

 can have his own way. When we cut off those side issues we dropped 

 down suddenly in our control of the crop, because we undertook to put 

 it on a business basis; we are now steadily increasing our holdings. 



Mr. KEARNEY. What percentage do you control now? 



Mr. NAFTZGER. We have now about thirty-five per cent. 



Mr. BERWICK. Why, Mr. Naftzger, if you are so successful, is it 

 that sixty-five per cent still stay outside of your association? 



Mr. NAFTZGER. Well, I thought I had answered that when I 

 said we made a market for the sixty-five per cent to get their ready 

 money. We have made a market for their fruit and they sell it. 



