Amador ledger., 1906-01-05
What California Has at Stake.

WildL california HdS dL SIdKG.
In the year 1904 there were shipped
-out of California, by rail, -, $50 car
loads of fruit. Of these 7,051 we're
green deciduous fruits, ,574 citrus
fruit, IA, $40 dried fruit, b, 334 raisins,
966 nuts, 5,807 canned fruits. In the
same year the shipments of fruit. by
sea, from San Francisco, amounted
IN total to but 4, 371 carloads this en-
braclng all kinds. These figures show
the Importance of the railroads in the
transportation of the fruits of Cali
fornia to markets. The fruits carried
by rail exceeded those moved by sea
by more than 65, 900 carloads.
The shipments of vegetables by rail
from California in 1904 made up the
respectable total of 2,3Sl carloads of
ten tons each. The fruit and vegeta-
bIes, grown for expectation IN Califor-
MIA, have steadily increased their ex
port volume. With the maintenance
of favorable conditions their export
alton is certain to grow, with cores
ponding augmentation of the wealth
and prosperity of this State. By rail
fruits and vegetables from California
are moved at rates that enable them
to compete in the eastern markets
with products of orchards and farms
many hundreds of miles nearer the
great centers of population than Cali
fornia. In other words, discriminate
I've rates are given to Califronia as
against points far east of California.
Suppose the discrimination to be
eliminated and mileage basis of rate
making to be substituted by the Inter
state commerce commission. What
then? California would be unable to
compete and its products of orchard
and field would be cut off from
markets to which they now make their
way and in which they are competit-
lively sold. Resolutions adopted by
a commercial organization, in San
Francisco have emphasized that i'm
portant point as follows:
'"rhe export commerce III the green
citrus and deciduous fruits, the dried
and cured fruits, the vegetables, tho
wine and the lumber products of Cali
fornia must be carried over two thou
,oo1 Gro h1pdrod ,,,iIac 70 roooh tbair
center of distribution in the United
States. These products compete with
like Eastern products which are
carried an average distance of less
than two hundred and fifty miles.
Owing to the disparity in volume be-
tween the east bound and west bound
traffic, the railroads have heretofore
carried the products of California the
distance noted and delivered them in
Eastern markets at a rate that has
enabled them to successfully compete
with like products in the freight
movement of which but one-tenth of
the distance has been covered. That
this fostering policy, referable to the
existing conditions of traffic, would
be continued under a political control
and direction of freight distribution
in the United States is not even pro-
bable.'
While it is proposed by some to
revolutionize the basis of rate max
ing, the stake that California has in
the outcome is a germane consider
alton. ''Prio1 to the opening of COM
munication by rail with the east. :"
said General N. p. Chapman at the
Luther Bur rbank banquet at San Fran
cisco, 1.-THE California fruit industry
had no motive for expansion. So late
as 1880 we exported of fruit but SAG
carloads of ten tons each. But IN
1S90-ten years later-we sent out 16, =
1914 carloads. In a report which L
made that year it was shown that the
value of the fruit crop, sent out OF
the State by rail, exceeded that of
wheat and flour exports by over half
a million dollars. Sixteen thousand
carloads seemed an enormous output,
and by many 1t was thought we had
reached the limit of eastern consump-
tion. But mark what has followed.
In 1904 our shipments out of the
State, by rail and by sea, of the pro-
ducts of the orchards, gardens and
vineyards, reached the enormous pro-
portions of over $4,000 carloads of
ten tons each"
Indigestion Overcome.