The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 11, 1921, Page 7

- A New California Marketmg Stunt 'How State and Federal Inspection Is Made an Aid in Shipping Fruit and " Vegetables—Growers Protected From Loss BY E. A. KIRKPATRICK OU have to give it.to California when it comes to marketing fruits and vegetables. There’s no getting around it. And when California springs a new marketing stunt, better than the s old, you’ll have to give it to her on a silver platter. That is just what California has done—sprung a new marketing stunt. After trying it out last year, she is ready to tell the rest of the. country about it.’ ' When a firm in Philadelphia buys a car of Im- perial valley cantaloupes f. o. b. Imperial valley,. thearetically that firm takes all the risk in transit to Philadelphia. Actually, though, unless an in- spection is made in California, or acceptance is made in California, if the cantaloupes arrive in the City of Brotherly Love in bad condition, there is beund to be a dispute as to whether the canta- loupes were all right when they were shipped. No matter whether the product is cantaloupes or cabbages, and the trip east to west or from north to south, you see what is needed—inspection at the shipping point. California shippers saw that need, too, and a year ago the California department of agriculture established shipping pomt inspection of fruits and vegetables. To see how it works out, let me cite this actual instance: A car of grapes was shipped from Lodi, Cal,, f. 0. b. Lodi, to Louisiana last gummer. The grapes were sold for $2.26 a lug. en the car reached its destination the buyer wired that the grapes showed 20 per cent decay, and he must have an allowance of 35 cents a lug. The shipper wired back that the grapes were inspected by a represen- tative of the state department of agnculture, that the shipper had a certificate of in- spection, that the receiver had bought the grapes-on a basis of delivery in Lodi, and if there was any damage he must accept the car at invoice price and file claim with the railroad com- pany. This last the buyer did, and the shipper was ahead $375 on the one car. RAIFROADS FAVOR THE PLAN ALSO In the first three months after this shipping point inspection was estab- lished last year, 3,000 cars of perish- able stuff were mspected—-l 000 cars a month—which is a big job for a new organization. In the Sebastopol ap})le region practically the entire crop was inspected at the shipping point. Four hundred sixty-five cars of Graven- steins went out of that section bearing certificates of inspection, and not a single car bearing a.certificate was rejected! Nor are the railroads afraid of this- plan, fearing that it will shift more claims to the railroads. On the con- trary, the railroads are keen for this inspection service, because it will pre- vent the payment of some unwarrant- ed claims. Railroads want to know the condition of produce when it is loaded. Last November L. J. Weishaar, supervising inspector of the standardi- _ appearance in the field at harvesting time. spector at the terminal market could not say where ° reader near Seaforth, Minn. him to beat the coal profiteers. zationl ‘service of the California department of agri- culture met with Pacific coast claim agents to ex- plain the new inspection service, and the agents went on-record as being in favor of the movement.. At that meeting it was brought out that the railroads pay a great many unwarranted claims. For instance, one of the railroads in the South paid three-fourths of a million dollars in claims on a product which was supposedly damaged by chilling when it got te the terminal market. . The claims were paid on the assumption that the damage was done in transit, but after payment was made an in- vestigation showed that the fruit showed the chilled The in- the bad condition developed, and Lence the neces- sity of shiping point inspection, the lack of which railroads have always considered the weak point in .inspection service. ~When a car is inspected by a licensed:inspector of the California department of agriculture, the cer- _ tificate of inspectién is a®tached to the bill of lad- An attractive seal in ing mailed to the consignee. colors is being devised.to put on the car doors and on packages. The grades and terminology used in California by the state inspectors are honored by federal inspectors in all terminal markets where inspection is made, and terminal market inspection certificates are issued on the same basis of inspec- tion as that on which Cahformas shipping point inspection is made. This arrangement is necessary té the success-ef— the inspection service, for the California certificates have no legal weight outside of Califprnia.* The legislature of California can not legislate in such a way as to make the documents issued by a state of- This picture shows a pile of wood taken from % grove on<the farm of a Leader It was cut from a 16-year-old grove without thin- ning the grove out more than it needed. George A. Rucktaeschel, who owns the farm, says that this cutting gave him enough fuel for two years and enabled He advises all prairie farmers to have groves and thin them out when needed. Let’s have.more photographs of in- teresting things that Leader readers are doing or have done! by New System " ficer prima- facie evidence in another sta.te, but by tying up with the federal inspection service in the way described above, the California people hope - that in time their inspectors will all be appointed by the federal government, and then the certificates will eventually be prima facie evidence all over the country. They are accepted in courts as legal evi- dence outside of California, because they show that a car is inspected by a trained, impartial man, which is about as good evidence as anybody can want. WATCH THE PRODUCT . TILL CAR DOOR SEALED The reason why this inspection service worked so well in Cakfornia last year, and the reason it holds out so much promise for the future, is that California had built the foundation—standardiza- tion—before trying to build the inspection service. Grading, and the use of standard grades, is at the bottom of the whole thing. On top of that, the : product is under the eye of the inspector untxl the car is sealed. “One difficulty with inspecting goods at the ship- ping point,” says F. W. Read, specialist in charge . of standardization of the California department of agriculture and right-hand man in putting this in- spection service over, ‘“has been the necessity of - checkmg' up the goods which a packer claims are going into the car. We find it is necessary for our men to be present when the car door is shut in order to see that the actual goods inspected on the floor of the packing house go into the car that they are certifying. “We realize that one of the fundamentals of shipping point inspection is the establishment of I ' BEATING THE COAL PROFITEER ' l proper grades and standards for the goods we inspect. We have got to es- tablish a common language-between the shipper and receiver, and with that in mind we got one of the spe- cialists in standardization- to come out here from Washington to keep us on the right track. At the beginning of the vegetable season we worked out what we thought were standard terms for certain commodities. There- ' fore, when we call a tomato ‘mature green,’ on our certificates, we know that the federal inspector in Chicago will call a tomato ‘mature green’ on the same basis. When we call a tomato ‘pink,” we know that the fed- eral inspector in New York-calls a tomato ‘pink’ on the same basis. We are working towards a set of terms, - from the ground up. “We have got a dollars-and-cents proposition in this- shipping point in- spection. We have got a proposition that saves the shlppers money. We do not believe it is a panacea for all. our ills. We probably will never han- dle all the 100,000 cars shipped out of ‘the state—we have no ambitions in that line. But we do believe the ship- ping point inspection service is of de- cided value on cars sold at this end of the line, and on cars where the ship- per has no inspector of his own to make inspections.” Public Ownership Makes Pr‘ogress‘in the East and West RECENT bulletin of the Public Own- ership League of America records the start of a movement by the United Mine Workers of America to nation- alize the coal mines as a means of bettermg labor’s position and eliminat- ing profiteermg in fuel. The same bulletin-reports a great project in California for publicly owned hydro-electric power plants to serve a large part of the state. Says the bulletin: “At last an aggressive, definite and determmed‘ effort is being. made on the part of the organized miners for the public ownership ‘of mines. John Bro- _phy, president of District No. 2 of the United Mine ° Workers of Amenca, covering 14 countles in the coal region of Pennsylvania, is out with a stirring appeal to the miners of his district to take the lead in organizing and conducting a vigorous campaign in behalf of the nationalization of mines. “Mr. Brophy points out that this program of na- tionalization is the program which the national con- vention :of the United Mine Workers of America ad'opte‘d at its convention in Cleveland in 1919, and that in urging this program he is acting in obedi- ence to the will of the rank and file of the organ- ization. ““One of the biggest pubhc ownership projects of recent years is under way in the state of California. If it goes through, California will be the first state in the Union to swing into line with Ontarlo and - PAGE SEVEN other progressive states in the up-to-date, large- scale development of hydro-electric power under public ownership. “The state senate passed unanimously a bill es- tablishing a state hydro-electric commission under which the municipalities of the state may combine for the purpose of the production and distribution of electrical energy. While.the bill was defeated in the house it is being brought before the people for a vote on referendum petitions. “A committee of the lower house on irrigation passed, also unanimously, a resolution calling upon the governor of the state to immediately begin ac- tion for the acquisition of all avallable power sites in the Sierta region by the sta