Milford chronicle., 1927-10-07
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Written for this Paper by
FRANK P. LITSCHERIT

A special dispatch from Jackson
Vile to the New York World, arch
enemy of the policy of protection,
gives the startling information that
Democratic Frorida" is appealing
to a Republican administration at
Washington for tariff to protect its
citrus and vegetable industry from
"a ruinous foreign competition.
Looking across the Mexican bord-
er down into Cuba" the dispatch
continues, "and viewing increased
acreage given over to the exclusive
production of vegetbles and fruits
on which Florida heretofore has
held monopoly, growers through
out this state are alarmed"
The World dispatch continues with
the information that petitions are
being circulated to ask Congress for
special protective tariff, and that
800 growers in a recent meeting de-
clared that unless they got this ad-
ditional tariff they would be forced
to quit tilling the soil and turn
their ground into pasture for graz
ing cattle. The growers declared
further that Florida is helpless a
gainst the competition of Mexico
which has in recent years invaded
markets east of the AIississippi.
During this year it was said Mexico
marketed more than 5000 cars of
tomatoes in the United States and
more than 1000 cars of English
peas. Back in 1922 the total ship
ments of vegetables from Mexico to
the states amounted only to 900 cars
On the other hand, in 1922 the Flori-
da potato crop amounted to $14,000,-
600 while this year it totaled only
$3,000,000. The pineapple industry,
it is said, has been ruined in Flori-
da,because of cheap European COM
petition and Mexican onions are
putting Florida onions out of busi-
ness.
Evidently Florida is suffering
from something in addition to a de-
flated winter resort boom. And in
cidently it may be said that Florida
is not the only state so inconven-
fenced. Texas and other southern
states are feeling the weight of
Cuban competition and the political
warriors in those sections of the
country are beginning to stir rest
lessly in the free trade trenches.
Now the Florida and Texas grow
ers are agriculturists and farmers
just as are the sugar beet growers
OF Colorado and Utah. Closely akin |
to these in sympathy are the dairy |
ing industries of the Northwest and
the sheep and cattle industries of |
the West. Altogether these form a |
pretty respectable group in our to- |
tai farm industry, and they are Gi- |
rectly as well as indirectly interest I
ed in the tariff. To say therefore |
that the farmers of the country are |
to be caught in the campaign next |
year by the old shOp-worn cry of free |
trade is absurd. They will not so be
caught in the states in which the |
above named industries flourish and
they will not be so caught in the |
grain growing states.
As a matter of fact the tariff is no
longer a northern and eastern issue.
The action of the Florida growers
demonstrates this. Nowhere has
protective tariff sentiment grown SO
rapidly during the past IL years as
in the South. And so, just as the
tariff is becoming something more
than a sectional issue it is getting
greater than a mere partisan issue.
Tariff sentiment is growing in the
South. If is is losing anywhere it is
in some of the financial centers of
the country where certain interests
are now more concerned in financ-
ing Europe than in promoting new
industries in America. All of which
shows that strange things still
come to pass in this land of Won
derful changes.