Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-08

1
of such sales and will promptly pay to the re-
| spectiye shippers thereof the amount of such
! sales, less freightage, carriage and ten per cent
\ commission. unless otherwise directed by the
General Manager of said California Fruit Union.
and viii promptly forward duplicates OF said
accounts to said last named corporation.
Why should the account of sales be re-
! stricted to the corporation, whose principal
office is in San Francisco? Why not also
send them direct to the grower? May it
| not take some time for the grower to ascer-
! tain just what the net profits or the net
| losses on his shipments are? Why is the
General Manager given the power TO in
struct the agent of the Union not 10 pay TO
the grower, who ships by the Union, the
proceeds of the sale of his fruit, unless il is
| to anticipate losses that it is expected will
be made on consignments? Or, in other
words, fruit consigned to Porter Brothers
& Co. may not bring freight carriage, COM
mission and other expenses it may be sub
| ject to.
BOTH AGENT AND BUYER
| 1t is claimed by the Trustees of the Cali
| tornIa Fruit Union, who made the contract
with Mr.. Porter. that he has no right to
buy fruit. As 10 whether he has the right
TO buy or not the followi quotation from
their contract with him will show. The
party OF the second part (meaning Porter
! Brothers ~ Co.. agrees, in division
s. That it Porter Brothers & Co. will not pur-
chase any other products, directly or indirectly
when, in the opinion of the General Manager
of the California Fruit Union the sale of the
| same may be detrimental to the interests of said
| California Union, and his decision i'm this behalf
shall be final unless reversed by the Board
This unqualifedly gives to Mr.. Porter
| the right TO buy until the General Mana
| ger, Mr.. Buck, orders him to stop. This
| gives to Mr.. Porter not only the RICH. TO
buy parts OF crops, but whole crops, in such
proportions and quantities as he pleases.
and that will be sufficient TO cover the
whole shipping season, and there is not
one word in the contract to prevent him
! from doing so. What can this mean. when
! as is shown above, it is claimed by the
| trustees of the Fruit Union to be abso
/ lutely necessary to concentrate the entire
! handling of our fruit at the East-no mat
| ter how high or high low the freight NAV
be-into the hands of one man, and now
by the stipulated terms of the contract
which they entered into with Porter Broth
ers Il Co. Mr.. Porter has the right to pur-
chase fruit TO any extent, and sell it at the
East, thereby coming into competition with
his own firm as agents for the Fruit Union?
WHO WILL BE MASTER?
But, for argument sake, suppose there
should be any difference of opinion arise
! pENN TIC dStlib anu lllG managers As TO
| the propriety or right of the agent buvine.
| who will be in position to command, Mr..
Buck or Mr. Porter, who, under the terms
of his contract with the Trustees, has full,
complete and absolute control over all the
| fruit consigned to him. including the fruit
of the manager? Who is it that has the
| power TO destroy or build up at will, the
manager or the agent?
| Is it natural to presume that his wishes
/ will be antegonized by the manager OF q
majority of the Board, who admit they ore
! controlled by selfish motives and interests,
when they declare, as they have that it IS
their wish and determination to force all
who have bought and shipped fruit East in
/ the past out of the business? Do they not.
| by so declaring, admit they are willing to
destroy the business and sacrifice the prop
erty OF others, to the end that they may
themselves be benefited? Is it reasonable
to suppose those who will suffer themselves
to be controlled through selfish motives to
such degree will oppose the power they
have created to crush others?
MUST BE TAKEN ON TRUST
In fact. nothing is guaranteed by Mr..
Porter. On the contrary, however, he has
taken very great care to protect his own in
terests, which fact proves him to be strictly
a business man. In the language of tie
contract, he virtually says to Messrs. Buck,
Hatch, De Long, RuHyon and others:
| ~ GU are all nice gentlemen; honest and no
doubt mean well. and | have no doubt but
that all the members of the Fruit Union
are good, honest men also, but am not
| willing to take your words for anything 1t
| Is not business 10 take any mans word, for
the reason that there are so many ways to
| get out of 1t. | want you to bind YOUR
selves in contract with me that you will
do as you say you WILL then will feel safe,
but not otherwise. OF course, you all know
me, and know that it is not necessary for
ME to go to the trouble of giving any guar
antee which would compel me to do right
by you, and thereby protect your interests,
for you know that will do right; that |
will do the best can for you so long as it
will not interfere with my interests That
is the reason why l stipulated in my con-
tract with you that you should make good
all deficiencies caused by carloads bringing
less than freight, carriage and my commits
| sion."
| CALIFORNIA FRUIT-GRowERs ASSOCIATION.
The purpose of the California Fruit
| Growers Association is not like that of the
! Union) to form a close corporation into
which everybody is to be either drawn or
else punished to the death and driven out OF
| the fruit-growing or fruit-shipping bust
ness. The associations object is to place
everybody on an equal favorable footing i'll
question of shipping their fruit. We are
willing our members shall sell their fruits
| to Porter or any one else whom they
| choose. What we are concerning ourselves
about is, that all of our growers shall have
market for their marketable fruit. Whether
| this is obtained by our securing a low rate
| OF freight so that growers can ship and
market their own fruit or that thereby the
shippers can afford to pay them better
| prices, and that by reason of lower ireights
buyers and shippers are multiplied and bet
ter prices obtained, or lastly, that Porter Il
Co., by reason of augmented competition of
shippers, are compelled to give up the
! policy which it is claimed they practiced in
the past OF only letting so much fruit be
| shipped East as will Civ, exorbitant prices,
and now be required to sell at fair profit,
and thus
! FIND MARKET FOR ALL OF OUR FRUIT
The association does not care in which of
| these ways the benefit comes TO the grower
! What we desire is that profitable market
/ be opened up for all of our fruit, and that
this shall not be barred by combination
or monopoly having sole head at Chicago.
to whom our interests must be assigned,
! over whom we have no control; or, if we
| send to other consignees. we shall not be
compelled to pay penalty of five per cent
liz Ssi'h7o iNStii'hSf tLt COot
Of shipment, drayage. etc.
In becoming member of the association
no surrender of your personal rights are
demanded. 4 member does not have to
obligate himself while acting through the
association, not to sell his fruit, or, if he
does, that the sentence of self-inyoked
penalty will be pronounced upon him for
so doing, in the shape of five per cent
tax. or $50 per car for shipment to any other
consignee than the agent of the Union at
Chicago. Neither are there any princelv
salaries attached to any of the Offices of the
ASSOCIATION, as there are to those of the
Union, equal to many of the best offices
under the State Government, including the
Controller, Secretary of State, State Treas
urer and Others
Because of the economical principles
upon which the association is formed
twenty cents per share will go further and
accomplish more for the growers, than one
dollar per share would upon more ex-
travagant plan. The one great object to be
gained by giving support to the Fruit
! Growers Association is, a reduction in
freight rates on fruit East. and without sur
rendering the control of your fruit 10 any
one man or interest
Yours, respectfully, r. D. Stephens. Err
skine Greer, Joseph Reuter-, X II. Plate.
K. b. Blowers. ]. c. Boggs, E. P. Figg. W
| A Rripps 4 Il Abbott ,r,,,,.oz. n