TWENTY-FOURTH STATE FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 7 



few exceptions, bow the knee to this golden calf. To get money with- 

 out giving an equivalent is so deeply rooted that it tends to swerve us 

 in all our business transactions. The lack of a high state of commercial 

 honor seriously affects the public mind, and where it will end the future 

 alone can determine. It is the universal opinion among fruit-growers 

 that the best success can only be obtained by cooperation, unity, and 

 concentration; and yet it has been stated in public discussion by 

 intelligent fruit-growers that they were convinced that concentration 

 was impossible. Why? There can be only one of two conclusions: 

 that is, either a want of confidence in our ability to sell our own 

 products, or a distrust of fair dealing by those intrusted with the 

 management. Yet while we distrust each other we trust people whom 

 we have never seen, and who manage the sales of our products and 

 grow rich by our industry and labor. Combinations are not always 

 formed for the best interests of the producers. A close examination 

 will either discover a great lack of business tact or create a doubt as to 

 the strict honesty of the managers. I might cite for example, the 

 Walnut-Growers' Association of Southern California. The area adapted 

 to the cultivation of the walnut is very limited. The product is not 

 great, so that a combination in the sale of these nuts is not cumbersome. 

 The last crop was the first where the different associations agreed to fix 

 one price for the various grades. In former years each association did 

 its business in a secret manner ; that is, they made arrangements with 

 some business firm to sell the entire product at not less than a given 

 price, the seller to charge a fixed commission to be deducted from said 

 price. The crop of 1898 being a short one, the price soon advanced 

 above the association fixed prices. The contractors to sell the crop had, 

 as soon as the arrangements with the various associations were perfected, 

 made sub-contracts with nut-dealers, in all the districts where the nuts 

 were consumed, to place them at a given price based upon the prices 

 fixed with the associations. The advance in prices did not, therefore, 

 benefit the producers who were in the associations. In 1899 the associa- 

 tions agreed to unite and fix a price at a given date before the crop was 

 ready to harvest. In the early season I had written to- our association 

 that unless a certain course was pursued I would withdraw from the 

 association. My plan was, first, to advance materially the price at 

 which we would sell; second, that the nuts must be accepted and paid 

 for, cash, at the shipping point ; third, that we would guarantee to the 

 purchasers that no nuts would be sold at a less price, but that we would 

 reserve the right at any time to advance the price and in each advance 

 guarantee the purchasers that no nuts would be sold at a less price than 

 the last advance. At the Fresno Convention, held one year ago, a 

 detailed statement was made by Mr. M. Theo. Kearney, President of the 

 Raisin-Growers' Association. The above plan was based on the oper- 



