FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
145 
ever, seriously affect the grower and those depending upon him for em¬ 
ployment. 
The importer could, without any tariff or with a low tariff, deliver for¬ 
eign citrus fruits to wholesalers at prices which, while leaving a substantial 
profit for the importer, would mean ruinous losses to the American grower, 
The fact that retailers, hotels and restaurants woud be able to purchase 
imported citrus fruits at lower prices, and consequently American-grown 
citrus fruits at less than cost to the American grower, would not necessarily 
mean a material reduction in the cost of the fruit to the ultimate consumer, 
if any reduction at all. 
This is proven by the attached statement, which shows the exorbitant 
prices being realized by the retailers, hotels and restaurants. 
Any difference between the price at which foreign citrus fruits would be 
wholesaled and the present average price at which the American-grown 
fruits are wholesaled would be absorbed long before the fruit reached the 
ultimate consumer. This is demonstrated by the excessive profits being 
realized at the present time by the retailers, hotels and restaurants. It is 
the retailers, hotels, restaurants, clubs, dining cars, etc., who hold up the 
price to the consumer, and not the growers, growers’ marketing agents or 
jobbers. 
The removal or reduction of the tariff on foreign citrus fruits at this 
time would mean that the importers are put into the business on a large 
$cale by the United States Government to the injury of the American grow¬ 
er and the American citrus industry—and ultimately to the injury of the 
American consumer. 
As the importer could sell with a profit imported fruit at a price which 
would show the American grower a loss, it would be easy for the importer 
to work on a close margin until the American grower had been forced to 
abandon his groves. 
Then, after the American citrus industry was wiped out of existence, the 
importers could regulate their importations by the demand and have it in 
their power to advance the price on citrus fruits until the consumer would 
pay a much higher price than ever before, regardless of whether or not by 
that time the retailers, hotels and restaurants worked on their present un¬ 
reasonable basis or on a respectable margin. 
When we have a large crop, or over-production, of products grown in the 
United States, it is necessary to dispose of same in the United States and 
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