FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
147 
and until the rates, which under present conditions amounted 
to extortion, should be brought within reasonable limits. He 
went at length into the question of rates, citing numerous in¬ 
stances in support of his position. 
Mr. John Darby said he had listened to the remarks of the 
gentlemen, that there was no doubt we had the disease, but 
he had heard no good remedy. Mr. Healy had made a re¬ 
mark about going to Atlanta. As he (Mr. Darby) understood 
the transportation business, all these roads entering the state 
of Florida have entered into a combination or an Association 
for the purpose of protecting their own rates and in doing so 
they have entered into an agreement that if one roads cuts the 
rates that road is subject to a fine for each offense. That As¬ 
sociation is in Atlanta or has its headquarters there, and a 
request for lower rates forwarded to a general freight agent 
in the state of Florida would enable that agent to give a con¬ 
cession on rates to the state line, but he would be powerless 
to give you rates outside of his state. He had made some 
very careful inquiries into the question of rates and their 
abuse; the transportation companies were as much interested 
as we were; for this reason, if they impoverish the orange 
industry they will certainly reduce the amount of freight they 
get. The rate on oranges from Jacksonville to Chicago is 
60 cents per box of eighty pounds, in carload lots only; on 
apples from Chicago to Florida the rate is 40 cents per 100 
pounds. On fresh meats, which is a perishable freight, the rate is 
4 3 cents from Chicago to Florida. On 100 pounds of meat the 
railroad companies assume a liability of $16. On eighty pounds 
of orangesthey assume a liability’of $1. There was injustice there. 
From Jacksonville to the Ohio river, 863 miles, the proportion 
is 46 cents; north of the Ohio river, a distance of 300 miles 
to Chicago, it is 14 cents. The average price on oranges in 
the state of Florida on an average haul of 200 miles is 18 
cents. Now, we have not only to contend with the railroads 
in Florida, but we have to contend with their connections. 
He was not putting n a defence of railroads and he would 
like very much to advocate the popular side, but the railroad 
companies were in this position in this state. They could not 
ask the railroads outside of this state to reduce their propor¬ 
tion, for when they did, the outside railroads would say, “why 
do you not reduce yours ?” and if they did reduce, the proba¬ 
bilities are the reduction would be covered by an increase by 
some of the intermediate lines. So he thought Mr. Healy 
very nearly right in his suggestion that we go before the 
commissioner in Atlanta. The orange industry has got into a 
position where the transportation companies realized that it 
was impossible for it to go on much longer without conces- 
