The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-06-21
. VERY TOUCHING APPEAL
FLoRiDA,s ELOQUENT PLEA ron
HIGHER DUTIES.

FLoRiDA,s ELOQUENT PLEA ron
HIGHER DUTIES.
Prosperous Orange Growers Talk Piti-
fully or Impending Rnin-A Sister state
Stretches Out lmploring Hand and
Begs 70 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 eloquence,
50 called, which ought certainly to have
touched q tender chord in the hearts Of
the committeeman. The growers prayed
for . duty Of nj 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
past In wooing the productions Of the
soil will be sacrificed and lost, and from
the Pacific to the Gulf and the Atlantic
the sad 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
west, a sister state holds out her implor-
ing hands for succor, and sends through
US from the bosom OF her blossom laden
ed orange groves the prayer for protec-
ton on her nursing industry. Protect
us now, and the future will enable Po-
mona to send her fragrant greetings to
every man, woman and child in the
United States holding q penny in their
hands, and across the waters to 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,"
men under suoh 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 n cent apiece. Instead Of
this we must let "Pomona send her
fragrant greetings to every man, woman
and child in the United States holding
a penny in their hands,"
Evidently Ex-Governor Mabry and his
associates have not forgotten declama-
ton day at school, when they used to
regale one another with choice extracts
from writers of a 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 a rebate for damaged
fruit. "Such q clause" they say, sis a
delusion and a snare" This protest Of
theirs is stated to 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
Of Ex-Governor Mabry himself before
the committee, not less than 90, 600, 900
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 they
have learned it we'll 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
.stitutions," which all means that they
are totally unfit to raise oranges for us.
"We must have protection or Lam
guish," say the Florida men, and their
spokesman, Ex-Governor Mabry, told the
that they should need this
protection for twelve ycars-the time It
requires to bring o newly planted grove
to profitable bearing.
Then Mr.. Flower asked: "Why not
make the tariff take effect ten years from
nowY'
To which the down hearted ex-gover-
nor answered.: "That would be absolute
" ~ruinous. You want to ruin us SO that
cannot do anything, and then, when
We are dead and buried, you want to
psalms e US"
A moment after this rather blue fore
Of his prospects the ex-governor
up courage apd was imprudent
enough to jeopardize his case by boastfng
Of the superiority Of Florida as compared
with other orange producing countries.
1--WE have q better climate he said, ga
better soil, more capacity and more
sense
Your true Foridian is 30 accustomed,
to cheerful views Of the present and fu-
ture prosperity Of his state, 90 accus-
toned to blooming" his rich orange
lands, that he cannot make apoor mouth
even when he sets out deliberately to
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 $4,000 an acre; and that q
good grove might bring $4,000 to $500
an acre. When n considers that the
unimproved land costs about 500 an
acre, It Is easy to see from the above fig
ures what q paying industry orange
growing Is. MI. Flower read to the wit
an extract from The Florida Agri-
culturist, showing q case where an eigh-
teen acre grove had yielded $11, $50 in q
single crop. To this Mr.. Mabry offered
no denial.
The papers Of Florida and California
a. we'll give glowing accounts 81 the
great profits Of orange growing-some
figures being even more glittering
than those In the case just cited. The