Report From Committee Visiting California. 
By W. S. Hart. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I am a little afraid that our members 
present may be disappointed in the val¬ 
ue of my report of the visit to California, 
for the reason that I did not know until 
this morning that a report was expected. 
If the convention had been held a week 
or ten days later so that more of the 
members of that committee could have 
been present, then we might have had a 
very important and valuable report, I am 
sure. Since my return I have not really 
had time to give a thought to the matter 
much less to get our experiences and im¬ 
pressions up in a systematic form. If 1 
miss any points, just fire the questions at 
me and I will do my best to answer them. 
In the beginning let me say that this 
party started out, not for a pleasure expe¬ 
dition, but for business. It is true that 
we had every courtesy shown us, every 
comfort that modern convenience could 
supply in the way of Pullman cars, din¬ 
ers, observation car and a club car; three 
cars being devoted to our exclusive use, 
and on the way back there was as much 
of this as we needed, though part of our 
party was left on the way. We stopped at 
the Grand Canyon on our way out and the 
Pullmans were kept there for us. As we 
went to Los Angeles the next day and 
while still in the desert a committee came 
out to meet us from San Bernardino, 
bringing flowers and fruits and in that 
party were fruit growers, bankers and 
others who could answer intelligently al¬ 
most any question we might ask of,them. 
When we got to Los Angeles, the 
Chamber of Commerce gave us the Direc¬ 
tors’ room in which to hold our meet¬ 
ings, which was most excellent for that 
purpose. The California Fruit Ex¬ 
change invited us to be present at their 
business meetings so that we might 
see the inside workings of their system 
and they showed us their books and 
gave us every opportunity possible to 
study the marketing system of Cali¬ 
fornia which is, no doubt, the best in 
this country. If their method of 
handling fruit can be adapted to our 
state so as to meet the needs and require¬ 
ments of at least a large portion of the 
shippers, as I am sure it can be, it will 
mean a saving of hundreds of thousands 
of dollars every year. 
Leaving our baggage at Los Angeles, 
Messrs. Powell and Burton conducted our 
party to Garina, Azuso, Pomona, San 
Dirnas, Riverside, Redlands, San Ber¬ 
nardino and other places and for two 
days we were taken through die groves, 
through the packing houses and through 
the most beautiful spots of one of the 
most beautiful countries in the world. 
We were given every opportunity of 
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