148 
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 
sions in rates, and furthermore, a concession in rates would 
enable the orange growers to produce that much more fruit. 
The matter should be taken up in the best manner. We 
should pursue a course of policy before endeavoring to an¬ 
tagonize and see if we could not get a concession in that way. 
He would go into a company formed for the purpose of build¬ 
ing a transportation line. He would contribute his mite and 
would take all interest in the project, but could it be made a 
success? Could it be done? And it we failed after antago¬ 
nizing the railroads, we would be powerless. What we wanted 
was a lower transportation rate on the next crop of oranges 
and to get direct benefit instead of indirect benefit. He would 
favor as a resolution that this Society appoint a committee of 
two or more with the request that the board of trade of Jack¬ 
sonville appoint a similar committee and also the Orange 
Growers’ Association to be formed, to wait on this Traffic As¬ 
sociation in Atlanta, present the facts before them and see if 
we could not get a concession. The railroads outside the 
state of Florida participate in the benefits of our crop to the 
extent of millions of dollars a year and they make that in two 
months. As a result of the last orange crop the grower was 
unable to pay for the fertilizers he needed, in the absence of 
fertilizer there would be a short crop and unless they aid us 
they will destroy an industry out of which they get millions 
of dollars 
Mr. Hind said that all the transportation companies in¬ 
terested in carrying fruit from Florida had formed an organi¬ 
zation, a “combinein other words, they had formed exactly 
what we ought to try and form. They were in a certain 
business; they got together to adjust their affairs and we 
should do the same thing. 
Mr. Healy wanted to know if we could get these rates by 
fighting. This fight had been going on for years, but he had 
not seen any better rates yet. If anyone had a formula or 
plan for getting rid of the trouble, he would be glad to 
bear it. 
Mr. W. H. Mann wanted to know what all this amounted 
to. The railroads were not to blame; if we were fools enough 
to pay their tariff, let them have it. Why did we not go to 
work ourselves and organize and send a committee to the 
railroads and say that if the rates were not adjusted we would 
go to other lines. 
S. S. Harvey —I have lived in California. There they or¬ 
ganize and are not afraid to put their hands into their pockets 
to do it. The only remedy was to organize, and if it was 
necessary to build a steamer to carry your fruit, to build it. 
