132 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
Chase & Company, Jacksonville, Florida, 
temporary address in Washington, D. C., 
New Willard, respectfully submit the fol¬ 
lowing brief as an argument for the re- 
w 
tention of the present duty on citrus pro¬ 
ducts. 
It is herewith stated that the arguments 
herewith submitted are not complete for 
the reason that other representatives of 
the important industry in Florida have 
appeared, or will appear, before this hon¬ 
orable body, whose time is too valuable to 
be taken up with duplications. 
HOME LABOR. 
Whatever may be the fact of the theo¬ 
ry as to the benefits of protection in oth¬ 
er lines, such as for instance steel and ag- 
ricutural implements and many other ar¬ 
ticles whose value does not easily depreci¬ 
ate, the full force of the argument, which 
is admitted generally, applies with peculiar 
emphasis and certainty to such perishable 
products as fall under the general head 
of the citrus industry. 
The chief and indispensable element in 
the production of citrus fruits is labor, 
both skilled and unskilled. It is herewith 
shown beyond question that labor (at 
very moderate rate of wages) is the larg¬ 
est element in placing in market a box of 
this fruit. Reference is here made to di¬ 
rect labor paid by the day, week, month or 
season. Labor, however, appears in num¬ 
erous other forms. In truth, all the way 
from the clearing of the land to the deliv¬ 
ery of the fruit to the consumer; in the 
various forms of cultivation, handling, 
local hauling, transportation, cost of box 
material, fertilizers, paper, nails, etc. La¬ 
bor indispensably is the essential factor in 
actual cost. In support of these state¬ 
ments, we submit for the careful consid¬ 
eration of this honorable body as exhibits, 
the copies of actual pay rolls duly attest¬ 
ed, of marketing organizations, firms and 
individual growers. See Exhibits A, B 
and C, Packing House and Picking Pay 
Rolls, also Exhibit D, Cost of Labor in 
fifteen packing houses operated by Chase 
& Company, October 31st to December 
31st, 1912, inclusive. (Unless the com¬ 
mittee desires, we will not consume time 
of going into details that can be taken up 
at pleasure.) We state as an unquestioned 
fact that today in Florida all available la¬ 
bor is erqployed at higher prices than ever 
before. This has been true since the mid¬ 
dle of October, and will continue- to be 
true for weeks to come. Not only has all 
labor desiring to enter this field in Flori¬ 
da been steadily employed during the 
season, but it has been unequal to meet¬ 
ing the demand. As a consequence, 
thousands of men have been drawn to 
Florida from surrounding Southern and 
more Northern States. This has not 
been exceptional, but it has been increas¬ 
ingly the fact for some years and must 
continue to increase unless the industry 
is paralyzed by withdrawing the duty, 
which is now no more than the actual 
difference between the well paid labor of 
Florida and the poorly paid labor of for¬ 
eign citrus producing fields, or an ab¬ 
normal and destructive climatic change, 
which would produce the same results—• 
with this difference, the loss caused by 
weather changes would be easily repaired, 
while that produced by eliminating the 
tariff would be permanent. 
This is illustrated by the recovery in 
Florida from what at the time (1894-95) 
was called complete destruction, the crop 
