33 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



you will buy them, as you very well understand, for much less money. 

 It is too well known for me to state here, that a large business can be 

 conducted at a much less percentage of cost than a small one, and 

 consequently, by. uniting, these large interests will introduce economy 

 at every stage of the business. Two or three days ago I met a gentle- 

 man whom I had known for several years; I had not met him for 

 several months, and I said, "How does the battle go with you?" And 

 he said, "First rate." He said he had been up north in the raisin 

 business, and told me he had some certain percentage of the crops to 

 handle, and that his profit was about $75 a car. I am not saying 

 anything against the raisin organization, for I think it is an important 

 factor, and that it has made wonderful strides in the right direction, 

 but I wondered why when yesterday some gentleman from Fresno was 

 talking about the benefits of the raisin association, and how they were 

 able to borrow money, and so forth, I wondered why they did not get 

 that $75 a car and not borrow money at all for the ranch. If the other 

 man had $75 a car profit to lose, why didn't, the grower get that $75. I 

 will show you that the association can do business cheaper than any 

 one else in the business, because of the volume of its business. I will 

 say something about that later on. 



As to our own business, as I am asked to speak on the subject of 

 citrus fruits, I will say this to you: At this juncture, it costs us to 

 operate, everything included, all of the expenses, all telegrams, all 

 agencies^ and auction expenses, and everything pertaining to the market- 

 ing of the fruit, on an average of three per cent on the gross earnings. 

 Before we began operating in the orange business, the price for packing 

 was never less than 35 cents a box, and usually from 40 to 50 cents. 

 The percentage for handling the business was never less than ten on the 

 gross sold. We have reduced it so that it is from 24 to 28 cents a box 

 better than before, and the total cost of marketing is about three per cent 

 on the gross sold as against ten per cent. This is simply because we 

 have a large business, and the benefits going to the organization instead 

 of to the middle man or the speculator. Another benefit is reducing the 

 competition. One other word along that line: Under the system that 

 prevailed before we organized, the commission man or middle man pitted 

 every grower against every other grower; it is impossible, of course, to 

 entirely eliminate competition; that goes without saying, because every 

 producer of fruits is to a certain extent a competitor of every other 

 producer of the same class of fruits; but under the commission system, 

 the buyer and speculator pits every grower against every other individ- 

 ual grower. He goes to Jones and says, " Jones, I can get Smith's fruit 

 so much lower than you sell it," and then goes back to Smith and says 

 to Mr. Smith, 11 1 can get Jones's fruit so much lower than you will sell 

 it," and in this way he puts each of them in competition with the other. 



