TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS 5 CONVENTION. 43 



you here yesterday about the values of our mountains of iron ore in 

 California, and you smiled when he elaborated on that subject. I think % 

 we ought to make in California the nails used in packing our fruit, also 

 the paper that wraps it; we ought to own the stumpage from which the 

 lumber is cut to make the boxes; and every part of it ought to be within 

 the cooperation of the fruit-growers of California. That is a practical 

 business proposition, and not a dream. We have but a small concep- , 

 tion of the extent of this business. When you get combined the dried 

 fruit, nut, orange, raisin, and prune industries, and then forecast what 

 these industries are to be when this great Country of ours is developed 

 and the wants of the world are supplied as they will be, the volume of 

 the business is vastly beyond our comprehension. There is no question 

 but that we are to supply the vast population of the world. I do not 

 think any of us have a conjecture of what we have to do in the Orient. 

 Some one made a statement not long since that within two thousand 

 miles of the Philippines is located half the population of the globe, and 

 we are going to sell our products to the Philippines and the other part 

 of the world. We want the earth with the ribbon around it. I am not 

 talking politics; I don't care about acquiring the islands or anything 

 else, for that matter. 



In the paper submitted by Mr. Stephens yesterday he said the objector 

 was always in the land. There are some others, however; the "smart 

 alec" is here to stay. Nothing will cure him but the Sheriff with an 

 execution in foreclosure. Another objection which 1 have heard about 

 the impracticability of organization is because of the scattered con- 

 dition of the growers. They say, "Away up there in a niche of the 

 mountain a man has an orchard, and it is five miles to the next one and 

 twelve miles from there to the packing-house, and they cannot stand 

 the expense of hauling." What is the consequence ? The speculator 

 comes and buys it. Who hauls the fruit? Why, the man who 

 grew it hauled it and pays for the packing of it. The man who 

 comes from San Jose and drives out and buys his fruit for a cent less is 

 making a profit off you. The man who grows the fruit hires the livery 

 team and pays all the expenses of the man buying it. Why couldn't 

 you have an organization right here doing that ? All a man has to do 

 when he has packed and cured his fruit in compliance with the rules of 

 the association regarding grades and standard, is to send it to the 

 association, and that is the last he sees of it or hears about it until he 

 gets a check for the amount of the sale of that fruit. The grower can 

 know absolutely that he will get what is coming to him after the cost of 

 the organization is deducted, and no more or no less. 



There is another point on organization : It must be on an equal 

 basis — no privileged characters. It is a level proposition, where every 

 man shares alike in the benefits and the burdens of that business and 



