TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS* CONVENTION. 39 



As to the conditions we are confronted with in the orange business on 

 the subject of commissions: The orange business had been done entirely 

 upon the commission or consignment basis. I shall never forget an inci- 

 dent in which a man came to my office and wanted to borrow $100, and 

 as he was very good, I said he could have the money, and then he drew 

 out a bill and said, " I want to settle this bill." I looked at it, and 

 found that it was an account of sale of his orange crop. He said he 

 had turned over the entire crop to the commission man, delivering the 

 fruit at the packing-house, and they brought him out $93 in debt, and 

 with that $100 he wished to pay off this indebtedness of $93. I asked 

 him if he had the statement showing to him that the fruit was sold, 

 and he said no, and asked if he had a right to know that. He said, t( My 

 wife is about crazy, and is afraid I am going to be sued, and I probably 

 will be sued and I want to pay this bill," so I loaned him the money. 

 He had turned over his entire crop and $93 to get out of the hands of 

 the commission man. Now I say that under an organized system, you 

 reduce the competition to the lowest possible terms; you eliminate that 

 and the destructive features of it. The whole trend of modern econom- 

 ics is toward the elimination of the individual, and toward unification 

 of power for the purpose of eliminating this destructive competition, 

 where every man is pitted against every other man. That is what we 

 want to do in an organization of fruit-growers. 



Another benefit, and that is, distribution. What we must have is a 

 wider distribution of our fruits, and we must have a systematic and 

 orderly distribution of it. This must be brought about by organization, 

 and in no other manner. There is another question right along with 

 this, and that is mutual defense. I will say more about it later on. It 

 is my belief that combination of nearly all, if not all, of the agencies by 

 which our products are transported East would benefit all fruit-growers. 

 As I see the situation among the green-fruit shippers of Northern Cali- 

 fornia, we are at the mercy of two men. I do not say they are bad men, 

 but God help the fruit-growers when they get to be bad men. I think 

 that from the fact that you are at the mercy of two individuals, you 

 ought to know that it is* time to pit an organization against a combina- 

 tion. It is time that the fruit-growers of California should stand in a 

 solid compact to meet a common enemy. I have not said a word about 

 anybody being bad, but I say that it is a dangerous state of affairs when 

 the industry of any community or of different communities is at the 

 mercy of two or three or any small number of men. And you will not 

 get any relief for the mere asking or from sentimental grounds. Nobody 

 is going to listen to any statement upon moral grounds. You will get 

 relief in every line when you compel it, and no sooner; and you will 

 compel it when you control their tonnage and hold it en masse, for the 

 interests that belong to them. 



