238 
THE LEMON TARIFF AND THE SAN DIEGO 
EXPOSITION. 
(The Forester Correspondence.) 
Washington, Ang. 12. — The farmer and fruitgrower is likely 
to feel that he is too often discriminated against by the railroads, 
by the tariff, by the commission men, by almost everyone with 
whom he comes into contact. He has so long been pictured as a 
"rube" who readily buys green goods and gold bricks that he is 
tempted to think, at times, that even Uncle Sam looks on him 
in that light. For years the farmers have been asking for the 
same measure of protection in the tariff that has been accorded 
freely to the laboring man and the manufacturer. Has he got it? 
Not always. Occasionally the man who tills the soil has got some- 
thing but it has been hard won, and no sooner did he get it than 
powerful forces were arrayed to snatch it away from him. 
Take a concrete case. In Florida and CaHfornia the climate 
was found to be suitable for growing oranges and lemons. 
Enterprising pioneers in both states took up the new lines with 
enthusiasm. They met with many discouragements and setbacks. 
There were insect pests, frosts, droughts, scarcity and high cost 
of labor, unknown problems to solve, years to wait for returns, 
and competition from foreign lands when other problems had all 
been reduced and success achieved. Orange growing reached a 
stage where the home growers controlled the market and com- 
petition was little feared. Lemon growing continued to be a hard 
fight although the problem of producing a better lemon than the 
imported had been solved and .SO per cent, of the home market 
was supplied by home-grown lemons. The extension of the mar- 
ket was checked because the importers, with cheap home labor 
and cheap ocean freights, could, and did, keep the American fruit 
from reaching the seaboard whenever they wished to do so. 
Congress wanted to give the American growers an even break, 
and added one-half cent per pound to the tariff on lemons, or 
about one and one-half cents a dozen, one-eighth of a cent on 
each lemon. During the hottest portion of the summer lemons 
sold in Washington at 10 and 20 cents a dozen. No one found 
any complaint vv^ith this except the Italian importers in New York 
City. They started in at once to raise a slush fund to fight the 
tariff. The growers in Sicily and Italy agreed to pay from 5 to 
10 cents on each box of lemons imported into the United States 
to help fight the tariff. They began a campaign to arouse the 
American public to a belief that it was being wronged, and to in- 
fluence Congress to remove the tariff on lemons. Congressmen 
were appealed to bv the agents of the importers, the pushcart 
men and the retail fruit dealers. Untruthful petitions were cir- 
culated, so untruthful that their mendacity was evident at a glance. 
One form of petition refers to the ''burdensome duty on lemons," 
