THE HOLDING MOVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE 279 
huge supply and the export demand was almost negligible. “It 1s 
apparent,” wrote an authority, “that the price of raisins f.o.b. 
San Francisco is too high to include raisins for export.” (Western 
Canner & Packer, August, 1922.) 
By 1923 production had mounted to 275,000 tons—an increase 
over 1912 of 267 per cent; and in that year prices to growers fell 
below those of 1912. (Sun Maid Raisin Year Book, 1926, p. 8.) 
In 1924, the gross sales of the Association were only 
$15,600,000, as compared with $44,000,000 in 1920. And prices 
to growers fell below 3 cents a pound—that is, decidedly below 
the pre-war level. (Ibid, p. 8.) 
In 1923 advertising costs reached the maximum of $3,856,000 
and in 1924 they were $2,539,000, or 16.26 per cent of the gross 
receipts. (Ibid., p. 8.) 
In 1918 the association entered into a contract with the growers 
to purchase their raisins at a minimum price of 3.5 cents a pound 
for the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, with a clause providing that 
the growers had the privilege of extending this contract for three 
more years. When, however, prices of raisins rapidly advanced, 
growers tried to repudiate their contracts, believing that they 
could get better prices outside the association. The association 
sought redress in the courts and growers were enjoined from 
selling their product elsewhere. But with the collapse of the 
raisin market and the consequent financial distress of the asso- 
ciation, the contracts with the growers were automatically can- 
celled. While the association has been reorganized and new men 
have been placed in control, growers are dissatisfied; and, 
although, owing to the utter lack of frankness on the part of the 
officials, it is impossible to discover from the reports of the 
association just what it is accomplishing, the statistics just quoted 
are quite sufficient to show that the association has signally failed 
to win satisfactory prices for its members. 
He who runs may read this sorry tale of an attempt to work 
against economic laws instead of with them. 
For a number of years one of the most persistent demands that 
the farmer shall be put in a position to hold his product for 
higher prices has come from our wheat growers. In 1900, although 
the after harvest prices of wheat were still very high, they had 
receded from the war peak and farmers refused to sell at what 
they considered a low price level and cooperative wheat pools