The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1909-06-11
TIE PINEAPPLE SITUATION

shows little if any Improvement. Prices
are still lower than for many years, and
while the Cuban competition has great
~ subsidized on account of the condition
of the markets preventing them netting
ANYTHING over freight charges, except
in eastern markets where they have
water transportation, other fruit is now
going forward and it is not probable
that our growers will experience much
relief in the short season remaining.
The discrimination against the East
Coast pineapple grower in freight rates
and service is not heard so much about
the past week as for the several weeks
proceeding. And the reason is obvious
The published rate of 80 cents from
Knights Key to Cincinnati for Cuban
pineapples has been proven untrue
The rate being 57.2 cents against rate
of 50 cents from Fort Pierce, which
may appear as discriminatory without
an investigation.
TO handle the East Coast crop the
railroad has built sidetracks nearly
every mile, established freight stops on
every plantation and operates "pick-
up" train between Fort Pierce and
Stuart 1t also allows the grower to
route his shipments.
To handle the Cuban crop the Florida
East Coast railroad and connecting
lines have entered into a contract with
a large importer in Chicago. So far
these lines have handled nearly $4,000
crates mot enough to glut the market)
and every crate has been consigned to
one importer, who, (nOr the shipper)
has the right to route his shipment nor
can car be diverted until it reaches
Cincinnati. 1t is entirely through
shipment from Knights Key to Cincin-
natl
Mr.. Kirkland, of the freight depart
ment of the Florida East Coast railway
states that the Cuban pineapples are
MT receiving any better service than
the Florida growers can receive If they
will meet the requirements of the Gu
ban traffic. In other words: If any
combination of East Coast shippers
will give the railroad twenty cars con-
signed to one market, over one route,
the company will transport it by special
trains to destination. In fact, there
has not been single Cuban train to
leave Fort Pierce on which one or more
cars of Florida pineapples have not
been added and carried through to des-
tination. On several occasions fifteen
cars have been added and carried as
far as Jacksonville, but after reaching
that point the growers had routed them
over various routes and they had to be
cut out of the special train and take
regular through trains. Apparently,
the growers are responsible if they are
not getting satisfactory service. The
bugaboo about mail train being side
tracked at Eldred for the Cuban pine
apple train has been exploded. Nearly
every night the mail train is held in
Fort Pierce (Monday night as long as
80 mnutes)to await the arrival of the
pickup" train.
THE TRIBUNE cannot be charged with
being a partisan Of the railroad COM
pany, We are not even on friendly
terms with the management, and have
not been since the primary election
year ago, We have never received a
favor from them and are not allowed
the publishing of the time table of the
road as an advertisement; favor that
is given every other newspaper pub
lished along the line, except the Miami
Metropolis. Further, we would not ac-
cept any business from the road unless
it came to US on the same terms and
conditions as other business.
We have devoted considerable time to
a thorough study of the causes that
have produced the present depression
in the pineapple business, and find that
our growers are wasting time discuss
ing discriminatory freight rates and
service that should be used to correct
ing the causes that have brought about
a disastrous season.
The whole cause of the low price of
pineapples this year is caused, First -
by tariff on the foreign fruit that is