Tariff Discussion 
Mr. Skinner: Now, I am not going to 
read this long paper to you; it is too near 
dinner-time. This is really the argument 
made before the Ways and Means Com¬ 
mittee in Washington by Mr. Temple, 
Mr. Chase and myself. 
iGoing back to the beginning; I re¬ 
ceived a letter from Mr. Chase saying 
that there was a frame-up in the tariff 
situation, and that if we did not want to 
get badly injured, we had better “get 
busy.” I wrote Mr. Temple immediately 
and arranged a meeting between Mr. 
Temple, Mr. Chase and myself in Tampa, 
where we discussed the situation and 
came together, knowing that all our in¬ 
terests in this were identical. There was 
very little response to that call, or sug¬ 
gestion, for a meeting, rather, because 
no meeting was ever held; we simply put 
out a feeler to find out if the growers 
were interested. My friends, the grow¬ 
ers of Florida are great optimists. They 
were like the man who had started to 
fall from the top floor of a ten-story 
building; when he reached the fifth floor 
he said here he was half-way down, and 
nothing had happened yet. 
Now, I want to tell you that you do not 
know the situation as it is. 
Mr. Bond: Oh, pshaw; I knew all 
about this business before you were born. 
It is an old story. 
Mr. Skinner: Well, Mr. Bond, you 
don't know the situation as it is now. 
This same situation did not happen be¬ 
fore. This same situation didn’t happen 
before I was born. 
Now, I am not going to talk politics 
in any way, shape or form. I am talking 
facts for your information, and I don’t 
want to get up an argument. I want to 
say this; this is history, and can be 
proven, if it is necessary. There is a 
tremendous upheaval in this country, 
which we all knew was going to take 
place when the Democratic party put the 
Republican party out of politics. All the 
people knew it was coming. In New 
York there was an appeal made—I will 
not mention any names—by one large, 
political organization to get a certain 
district, to get a certain section of people 
to support them in that district, and in 
return for that support, citrus fruits were 
to come in free, absolutely free. 
California elected a Democrat from its 
citrus district, and that is one of the 
things that saved us so far. 
This tariff schedule is. drawn, not to 
give you justice which is asked; my at¬ 
titude in going before that committee was 
not for privilege, but simply for justice. 
We were willing to stand on the same 
basis as the other fellow, but that tariff 
schedule to which Mr. Temple called the 
attention of the public, and I called the 
attention of our Congressmen to, that cut 
reduced the rate from 85 cents to 28 
cents, when the fruit is shipped in a box; 
