TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 41 



yield, and every man yields something, and they all get their profit. 

 In my judgment an organization should be decisive as to its charac- 

 ter. When we organized the orange-growers of Southern California 

 we were confronted with the statement that the middle men or ship- 

 pers or packers controlled the market, and I speak in no disrespect 

 of them. We were confronted with the statement that they con- 

 trolled the markets, and unless we employed them we would not 

 be able to market our goods at all, and that they held the keys to 

 the avenue through which the distribution should be made to the 

 markets. We took the ground that nobody controls the markets but the 

 man who controls the supply. Consequently, if we held the supply we 

 would have ready access to the markets. We, therefore, at one sweep 

 eliminated all the speculative features from the hand of the grower to 

 the hand of the merchant in the market itself. We left no ground 

 whatever for a speculator to stand upon, so far as our business is con- 

 cerned, and we have paid no tribute to any one— except the growers who 

 refused to cooperate with us have more or less hurt us and damaged us 

 in the market. But so far as the packers and speculators are concerned, 

 they are no damage to us and no benefit to us one way or the other, as 

 the grower puts his crop into other hands. I therefore take the ground 

 that there is no reason why our products should pass through the 

 hands of, and that we should pay tribute to, the speculators as an 

 abstract proposition. There is no reason for it. We want organization 

 at both ends of the line. Some one said something yesterday about 

 widening the markets and increasing consumption by distributing the 

 fruits into all the markets of the world. Who is going to do that if 

 the producers do not? You don't think the speculators are going to do 

 it. An organization at the other end of the line is the way to get new 

 markets. The Southern California Fruit Exchange has the best organ- 

 ization in the markets that was ever made in the orange business. 

 Why I say that is this: We sell more fruit, of course, than any other 

 four or five shippers of California oranges, and sell it for more money 

 than any of them. I don't hesitate to say that we sell our fruit in all 

 the markets except the auction markets, where the fruit sells on the 

 block for what it is. In all the other fruit markets of the United States 

 we sell our fruits for more money than any operator that ever shipped 

 fruit from California, and for less cost. Another thing as an evidence 

 of our thoroughness of our organization at the other end of the line: 

 We sold oranges during last year from Victoria to Florida and from Los 

 Angeles to Montreal; our sales amounted to $2,750,000, and we never 

 lost one dollar in bad accounts. If I am met with the statement that 

 this is a phenomenal streak of luck, I will add that three seasons have 

 passed, and $7,000,000 worth of business done, and only $866 lost in 

 bad accounts. I challenge the commercial world to beat it. It is 



