TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 23 



Prof. CHILDS. We have attempted to form a Pacific Coast Cured 

 Fruit Association, and have been working a long time in that direction. 

 I have been one of the directors in that association, and we have spent 

 a good deal of time trying to organize. We have copied the Raisin- 

 Growers' contract with a few modifications. I shall present it to you in 

 the morning. I believe that before we leave here we can organize. I 

 know now from information we have from various parts of the State, 

 that they are ready to join with us. We shall have with us to-morrow 

 the men who have done so much to organize the raisin-growers of Fresno. 

 I think we have a pretty good outline of the plan, and we have given 

 it much attention for some weeks and I will present it to-morrow when 

 we can discuss it. 



Prof. FOWLER. I was through all of this matter pertaining to the 

 raisin-growers' organization in Fresno County and was one of those who 

 suffered from the conditions that prevailed — those conditions that 

 brought the raisin-growers right to the Sheriff's office, and the Sheriff 

 to their farms. I know some of the difficulties that occurred in the 

 matter of organization, and I know that men do not like to organize 

 until forced, because they have some sort of a reason for staying out. 

 Mr. Stephens mentioned in his report some of the reasons for staying 

 out of it. You cannot do anything with an organization until you get 

 a large percentage of the growers so they can safely make the organiza- 

 tion a success. The raisin-growers did not get to that point until the 

 Sheriff and the banks forced them there. There was a mortgage upon 

 nearly every raisin farm in the country ; there were very few men without 

 a mortgage in Fresno County; the result of it was, they saw that it came 

 from a shortsighted business policy; through organization those men 

 saw the light that was coming, as you men now see it in the prune 

 business. There are men in 'this building who work along for years 

 urging organization, but when you get together, organize as far as forty 

 or fifty per cent. The raisin-growers could not get more than that; they 

 could not get ninety per cent at the outset, which was what they thought 

 they needed. They told them that they could not control the crop un- 

 less they had more than seventy-five per cent of the product that was 

 produced. So year after year passed by until we got right at the place 

 where the Sheriff was at the door. The banks would not lend any 

 more money; they said, if you don't come into these organizations, 

 we will not lend you any more money, and the growers all came in and 

 they made it a success. I was in the office of the treasurer of the asso- 

 ciation down there the other day, and Mr. White informed me that they 

 passed over two millions of dollars to the growers of raisins 3 and that 

 has paid these men well for the labor. What is the result? You can- 

 not hire a piece of raisin land to-day — land that went begging a few 

 years ago. The growers are taking better care of the vineyards now. 

 The real estate has improved, and Fresno has commenced a new growth. 



