Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-04-15
A VERY TOUCHING APPEAL
FLoRlDAS ELOQUENT PLEA Eos
HIGHER DUTIES.

Stretches Out imploring Hands and
Begs to Be Saved.
The Florida orange growers have been
before the ways and means committee
to convince congress that they are in
desperate straits. In presenting their
case they enlivened the committee with a
specimen OF old fashioned eiOquence.
% called, which ought certainly to have
touched tender chord in the hearts Of
the committeeman The growers prayed
for a duty of one dollar a box on foreign
oranges, and here are the concluding
words of their pathetic prayer:
Refuse to place this duty ON oranges.
and the long years Of patient labor now
pas. in wooing the productions of the
soil will be sacrificed and lost. and from
the Pacific 10 the Gulf and the Atlantic
the ..d story OF thousands of impover-
ished homes Will be hurled across the
waters to people growing rich on our
ruin. To you, gentlemen of the north,
gentlemen Of the east, gentlemen of the
vest, sister state holds out her impIor-
i1R uduh- TOT SuCCOEs --ilfA- tilEDtA-tl
US from the bosom of her blossom laden
Ell orange groves the prayer for protec-
ton on her nursing industry. Protect
us now, and the future viii enable Pc
mona to send her fragrant greetings to
every man, woman and child in the
United States holding penny in their
hands, and across the waters 10 the marts
OF the world. We can compete with
those who have prayed your honorable
committee to grant petitions from them
that would mean ruin to thousands Of
your people
IL would be too much TO expect of
men under such violent emotion that
they should use the cold language of
business. We must not expect them TO
say that they will reduce the price of
oranges to one cent apiece. Instead OF
this we must let Pomona send her
fragrant greetings to every man, woman
and child in the United States holding
penny in their hands"
Evidently Ex-Governor Mabry and his
associates have not forgotten declama-
ton Cay at school, when they used to
regale one another with choice extracts
from writers OF kind now extinct
The Florida men are terribly in earnest
and will be satisfied with nothing short
OF crushing the importer Of foreign
oranges. To this end they protest
against the enactment of any law allow
ing the importer rebate for damaged
fruit. Such a clause, they say, lis IA
delusion and a snare This protest OF
theirs is stated 10 be in the interest OF
keeping rubbish at home" for the
Florida grower thinks he cannot COM
pete with rubbish" His oranges are
the best grown in the world and sell
readily in New York at higher prices
than foreign oranges command.
Such is the excellence of the Florida
orange that, according to the statement
II Ex-Governor Mabry himself before
the committee, not less than 90. 600, 600
OF Florida buds were last year exported
to Mexico, the West Indies. South Amer
lea, some of the Pacific islands and Eu-
rope. And yet the Florida people pre-
tend to be confronted with dire disas-
ter" They have learned, too, the old
protectionist trick of applying a dam
aging epithet to their foreign competi-
tors; and it must be confessed that thew
have learned it well. The foreign orange
growers were denounced in the conven-
ton OF the Florida people at Ocala as "a
set OF men who have no sympathy with
our social life, our traditions or our in
stttutions," which ali means that they
are totally unfit TO raise oranges for rs.
I'VE must have protection OF Ian
guish," say the Florida men. and their.
spokesman, Ex-Governor Nabry. told the
committee that they should need this
protection for twelve years-the time it
requires to bring a newly planted grove
20 profitable bearing.
Then Mr.. Flower asked: why not
make the tariff take effect ten years from
now
To which the down hearted ex-gover-
nor answered: That would be absolute
ly ruinous. You want to ruin US 50 that
we cannot do anything, and then, when
We are dead and buried, you want to
sing psalms over US"
A moment after this rather blue fore
cast Of his prospects the ex-governor
picked up courage and was imprudent
enough to jeopardize his case by boasting
Of the superiority of Florida as compared
with other orange producing countries
I'VE have better climate, he said. "a
better soil, more capacity and more
sense"
Your true Eloridjs.n is 50 accustomed
70 cheerful views Of the present and fu-
ture prosperity of his state, so accus-
toned to booming" his rich orange
lands, that he cannot make a poor mouth
even when he sets out deliberately 70
try.
Mr.. Mabry damaged his case still fur
Their by admitting that there are orange
groves in Florida which cannot be bought
for less than "a, 900 an acre; and that a
good grove might bring s., 900 to g., 500
an acre. When one considers that the
unimproved land costs about 500 an
acre, 1t is easy TO see from the above fig
ures what a paying industry orange
growing is Mr.. Flower read 10 the wit.
pess an extract from The Florida Agri.
culturist, showing case where an eigh
teen acre grove had yielded SlI ,2jO in n
single crop To this Mr. Mabry offered
no denial.
The papers Of Florida and California
a. well give glowing accounts Of the
great profits Of orange growing-some
figures being even more glittering
than those in the case just cited. The
San Francisco Chronicle, high pro-
tectionist organ, recently gave long
description Of the conditions prevailing
in the orange industry in California.
The article contains the following cheer
full words: Better prices are being paid
than ever before; every orange grow
er who is producing good fruit is in re-