The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 2, 1921, Page 6

- Raisin company, in which "“mately the pinch of poverty. That . day, in the heart of the fertile valley Raisins the Fruit of Co-()peration"_- How California Producers, Faced With Ruin, Freed Themselves From « - the Grip of Speculators and Won Success : BY WYLIE M. GIFFEN President California Associated Raisin Company : HE heart of the San Joaquin valley of California is one great vineyard of raisin grapes. The grower is prosper- ous and his community reflects his prosperity in its schools, its homes, its roads, and its high sense of civie ideals. But the time was not so long ago when the raisin grower was either pitied or laughed at by his more fortunate neighbor whose acres grew alfalfa or potatoes, and who could meet his banker without fear and trembling. From this condition he was saved by the California Associated he and more than 10,000 of his fellows are united for the marketing of their product. Nine years ago the Cali- fornia raisin was a drug on the market. The average citizen of our nation’s hundred odd millions : somehow th.ought of I:a.i- Wylie M. Giffen sins only in connection with the holiday season. Raisin clusters fastooned ornamentally upon the Christmas stocking. At other seasons they might occasionally be found on the dinner table along with the walnuts and al- monds, just as a sort of after-dinner sweetmeat. But rarely was that household to be located where raisins were looked upon as a necessity or in which existed any knowledge as to possible uses for the raisin outside of mincemeat and plum puddings of yuletide. Rarer yet was the household of the grower of raisins that did not know too inti- grower was fortunate indeed who could show over a series of years re- turns equal to the cost of production. In fact, to such depths had the raisin as a commercial commodity sunk that thousands of tons were fed yearly to hogs. But that was nine years ago. To- of the San Joaquin, the once lowly, not to' say despised raisin, is now monarch of a vast and prosperous domain. The raisin grower has come through his years of struggle against want, his unpaid sweat in his vine- yvard, his apparently hopeless devo- * tion to a labor that the world did not seem to need or appreciate, and is at last reaping reward for his courage and his faith. Today he is one of the most prosperous of farming Cali- fornians. All this the raisin grower has accomplished through co-opera- tion. 4 GROWER AT MERCY OF THE SPECULATOR Prior to the organiZation of the California Associated Raisin com- pany, growers dealt individually with private packing concerns. The pack- ers, making no effort to bring about increased consumption of raisins, fornia Raisin Growers’ association came into being. It was somewhat loosely organized, could not finance its operations and, while it unquestionably brought the growers better prices than they would otherwise have received, it eventually collapsed. Conditions went from bad to worse, from its downfall in 1904 until the new company was form- ed in 1912, Prices sank so low that in 1910 some growers actually received but three-quarters of a cent a pound. The average price was 1% to 2 cents, while the actual cost of production was 3% cents. The growers who kept books did most of their writ- ing in red ink. Thousands of tons of grapes were left yearly to rot in the vineyards. Hundreds of growers dug up their vines and planted their lands to more profitable crops. The curse of the industry might be diagnosed either as overproduction or underconsumption. The holiday demand consumed an average of 50,000 tons of raisins. When that demand was supplied there remained in the growers’ hands from 20,000 to 40,- 000 tons that could not be disposed of, and which the packers eventually bought in at their own prices to use in their particular game of market juggling. These holdover raisins were usually unloaded on the trade in mid-summer. They simply glutted the market,’and when the new crop came along in Sep- tember there was no demand. The grower needed money and so again he sold for whatever the pack- ers would offer him. Thus the game went on, season after season, with middlemen waxing fat and the grower, the pawn of private interests, getting closer to starvation. Out of this situation and its desperation, the Cali- fornia Associated Rajsin company came into exist- ence. It profited by the experience of previous co- operative efforts and avoided the shoals upon which they had gone to pieces. The new organization started with $1,000,000. Some of it came from the growers themselves, some of it from private stock operated chiefly upon a speculative Lasis. The grower was always at the whim of a fickle market. Occasionally there came-a voice in the: wilderness crying for co-opera- tion, for a uniting in common cause of those with common interests. As early as "1892 growers gathered at Fresno, the central point of the rai- sin industry, to discuss the possibil- ity of pooling their product so as to obtain a uniform and profitable price. The effort did not get beyond discus- sion. A few years later the Cali- Ll e R Above—California raisin grapes drying between ' the rows of vines near Fresno, Cal. Below—The California Associated” Raisin company’s Fresno plant. This is the largest ‘raisin packing plant in the world and is one of 30 light, airy, modern and sanitary packing houses which this co-operative association of 11,000 growers operates. PAGE . SIX s ° subscriptions among the community’s business men, and much of it was borrowed on long-time notes se- cured by crops still to be delivered. It was almost the proverbial impossible bleeding of the turnip— but the million was raised. The company, corpora- tive in form but co-operative in spirit, was launched, and the growers began the marketing .of their own product. L The men who were at the head of the organiza- tion saw that the immediate problem was increasing consumption so that the holdover crop would be taken care of. This problem was immediately solv- ed, for since the harvesting of the first crop in 1913 every raisin California has produced has been sold before the coming of the next seéason’s crop. This was accomplished chiefly by means of adver- tising, intensive salesmanship, and the developing of new markets. The advertising, chiefly through magazines and newspapers, has sought to create a year-round demand for raisins, to educate the housewives into using them in daily cookery, and to make them a kitchen staple. The first advertis- ing was, of course, merely an experiment, under- taken with misgivings by men who knew little of the power of printers’ ink. Advertising now is an unquestioned part of the company’s policy, and as recognition of its potency it has increased tre- mendously in volume every year:; . PRODUCTION IS TREBLED BUT CONSUMPTION KEEPS PACE In the five years preceding the organization of the company in 1912 the average annual raisin pro- duction was 70,000 tons. Tt has grown by leaps and bounds. The 1920 crop fell-25,000 tons below spring-time predictions as the result of late frosts and an unusually early heat wave. Yet 1920 has put 175,000 tons of raisins on the market, while normal production of today is three times what it was when the co-operative work began. The Associated company’s raisins are all market- ed under one brand. All the advertising is devoted ~ to this one brand. The effort of the production and manufacturing departments of the organization has been to make this brand a quality brand sought by the housewife in preference to all others. Three times as many farmers are growing raisins today as grew them nine years ago. Yet those who did. not go through the travail of the days of indi- vidual selling, appreciate in full what co-opera- tion has done for the industry and are loyal to the organization and to the co-operative spirit that di- ;‘ects its destinies. ' They are proud of their organ- ization, of its work for their community, of its mod- ern packing plants, of its welfare league which makes employes feel they are a real part of it in- stgafl of mere cogs, and above all of the united spirit it represents. Today their company has $3,000,000 invested in packing houses, of which it operates more than 30, and has 3,000 employes. ‘When the final payment is made for the 1920 rai- sins, it will have paid its members more than $50,- 000,000 for their year’s work. During the past year the California Associat- ed Raisin company was attacked by the United States department_ of justice as a trust, and its dissolution was sought The complaint was based chiefly upon the contract existing: between the grower and the company. The company still be- lieves that it has oper- yight's, but in order that ‘it may be -safe from fu- ture attack it has pre- which, in the opinion of the best legal talent to be consulted, meets all the government’s objections and will be- unassailable (Continued on page 13) under the Sherman act.’ ated only within its legal- paréd a new contract’