Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-06-14

for a loaf Of bread, instead OF
, 5, because the children will be
crazy to get it, they Will find the rails
ms there and won't want any butter
they will be perfectly satisfied with
: the raisins, so you will save on butter
what you spend IN raisSns." The
dairymen didn't like that kind of argu
ment, but it took.
These statesmen went all over the
United States and introduced raisin
bread. The first year they sold 700
tons of raisins for bakers bread. The
next year they backed up this demon
stration with some general advertis-
ing in the newspapers and magazines.
They sold 5000 tons of raisins to the
bakery trade. In 1919 they sold a
little over 10000 tons to the bakery
trade. They found an absolutely new
and legitimate use for raisins as a
food, while they made more money on
them, the price still kept going up.
You have there the peculiar thing of
an increasing crop with an increasing
price.
They reached years when the aver
age price of raisins was 61S or cents
pound, yet. at the same time the
cost probably moved up about 31a or 4
cents pound. They were making real
profits. They increased production.
They got to the point where the raisin
growers even sent men over to China
and to Japan to figure how they could
introduce raisins. The prune growers
did the same thing. You see, we all
figured out that rice and raisins and
prunes was a mighty good combina-
ton. We said, Those fellows eat
rice, maybe we can get those who
fornia products with Oriental appe-
tites. They took it up very fast and
very sympathetically. They found
quite a few Japan and China firms
who thought the fruits could be
wisely introduced from California
into those countries. They urged a
campaign. Then came prohibition,
and since prohibition raisins no longer
have a food problem, but a booze
problem, and it is still with us. Since
that time the raisin growers, instead
of receiving or 0 cents pound are
getting this year almost 20 or 81 cents
pound for raisins, so that you no
longer have problem of any kind of
merchandising.
The Sum of Results.
But up to 1918, when it was a prob
lem Of merchandising, you had an in.
creased crop every year and increased
prices. Those growers had taken the
industry, starting from the bottom
and put in a new viewpoint. The
men who had to sell the crops year
after year had developed markets and
made the whole industry profitable.
They did a thousand times more in
three years than the Low Five and
the High Five had done together in
all the previous years. 1t wasn't a
matter of certain men being supposed
TO have commercial wisdom. The in.
dustry had a viewpoint from the in
terest Of the producers, not from the
viewpoint of the middlemeh. They
demonstrated that.
I am going to tell you some of the
real results they have had. First, I
wonder If any of you men have ever
been in Fresno since 1911, or in any
of those little towns around there
even before 1918. Those towns are
supposed to be the most prosperous
towns in the United States. Fresno
today is pronounced the most
prosperous town of it's size in
this country. You ought to see it.
Prosperity shows all over, not only
because it is crowded with automo-
biles. but because of the type and
stores and the business handled. You
can go to the districts around there
and see the farms. You don't see
implanted places, or places with out |
houses. You find places as modern as |
the incest cottages in Louisville. You
don't find the rural population of the |
organized districts Of California liv-
ing on plane lower than the city |
population. don't refer TO the grow |
er with 1000 acres, but to the man |
with ten acres, the small farmers as
we'll as the large farmers. You will |
go through the rural districts and |
find the people with new standard |
of living; no sign OF the differences |
you men are accustomed to see be.
tween the big farmer and the little
farmer and the so-called city and ru.
raj standard. They have not only |
been stabilizing their profits, but |
through sterilization in profits they
have raised their standards of living. |
The University Of California is the
largest--in- the United States. We
have several universities in the State.
The State is not a very large State
in population. We used to wonder
how that happened. because. we knew
the University Of California; is not !
equal to several others n THIS coun-
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