FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
143 
We are confronted by this condition, that owing to the close 
business arrangement of the different companies and the coast¬ 
wise steamers we can expect no relief except it is unanimous. 
As I understand it, they are bound under a very heavy pen¬ 
alty not to decrease the rate. It does seem to me as chair¬ 
man of this committee that it would be wise on the part of 
this Association to take every measure of relief that is at 
hand, no matter where it comes from. We cannot afford to 
wait; we cannot afford to let any sentiment stand in the way. 
It is business, pure and simple. 
Transportation., 
No paper or written report presented on this topic. A synopsis of the 
discussion is given below. 
Major G. P. Healy, Putnam county, Chairman of the Stand¬ 
ing Committee on Transportation, made a verbal report, re¬ 
counting the details of the arrangements made for the trans¬ 
portation of members to and from the meeting. He did not 
think it the province of the committee to go into the general 
subject of the transportation of our products to markets. As 
a purely commercial question it had no place in the proceed¬ 
ings of the society. Now that it had become more or less a 
political question, it was still less an appropriate question for 
discussion. It was wholly foreign to the purpose for which 
the society had been organized and carried on. It was in vio¬ 
lation of its constitution and by laws. Whenever introduced 
it was the cause of useless contention and acrimonious debate. 
He fully realized the importance of the transportation ques¬ 
tion; it was a business matter of vital importance to every 
fruit grower. He did not underrate the neoessity of securing 
an immediate remedy of existing evils in this direction. In 
view of the prevailing low prices of our products in market, 
the present rates of freight were partially prohibitive; the very 
existence of our industry depended upon speedy relief. But 
he deplored the effort being made to use this society as a 
means of agitating the question. If, by sacrificing the soci¬ 
ety, some practical benefits in the matter of transportation 
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