THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
217 
ter might be considered, saying that the nursery interests wished to be 
heard. On February 9th a second letter came from Mr. Haugen saying 
that there was strong talk that something of the sort would be done. 
The chairman of your committee, having in mind the criticisms of last 
year about spending too much money, hesitated about going to Wash¬ 
ington, thinking that some of the gentlemen there would be sure to 
send the telegram in time to call the committee to avert danger. 
It was plain enough that a dangerous move was in contemplation 
but the time was quite uncertain. That same morning a letter came 
from Mr. Wilson of the committee, saying that he felt uneasy over the 
situation, and that if it met my approval he would be ready to respond 
to a call to go to Washington that same evening. After debating the 
matter for some time I wired him to come and also wired Mr. Berck- 
mans of Georgia to meet us in Washington on Tuesday, the 12th. 
We reached Washington late Monday night, and Tuesday morning 
were ready for business. The three of us went first to Senator Proctor 
of the Senate committee on agriculture asking to be informed if any 
legislation affecting the nursery interests was in contemplation and 
that we might be heard if necessary. The Senator was very kind, but 
informed us that he had not been informed of any such thing. He, 
however, referred us to Senator Dolliver, of Iowa, of his committee 
for further inquiries. 
41V OBJECTIONABLE MEASURE. 
“ Senator Dolliver was readily seen and showed us a slip which had 
been furnished him by Senator Perkins of California, with the assur¬ 
ance that it was in his hands with the full approval of the department 
of agriculture, and in addition thereto, with the approval of all the 
nursery interests of the United States, so there being no objection to it 
there was no reason why it should not be attached to the regular agricul¬ 
tural appropriation bill and become a part of the law. Senator Dolliver, 
taking these assurances as worthy of credence, as he had a right to do, 
was prepared to consent for the committee on agriculture and unless 
your committee had been on the ground there is no reason to doubt, 
that the amendment, a copy of which is herewith submitted, would 
have become a part of the law. The amendment is as follows: 
“ In order to prevent the introduction from foreign countries of new 
and destructive plant diseases and insects which may be dangerous to 
agricultural interests of the United States, the Secretary of Agricul¬ 
ture is hereby authorized to arrange with the Secretary of the Treasury 
for the inspection of original packages of plants, seeds, fruits, and 
cuttings being imported into the United States at such ports of entry 
as may be agreed upon ; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby 
authorized to open such original packages for the purpose aforesaid ; 
and the Secretary of the Treasury shall refuse to deliver to the con¬ 
signee any such plants, seeds, fruits, or cuttings which the Secretary 
of Agriculture reports to him as infected with diseases or insects liable 
to prove dangerous to the interests of the United States.” 
It will be plainly seen that every nurseryman who imports stocks 
from Europe would have been in a very serious predicament. Every 
case of goods would be liable to be detained at the port of entry and 
opened to await whatever examination the officials of the Treasury and 
of the Agricultural Departments saw fit to give its contents. The time 
occupied would have been entirely at the pleasure of the young scien¬ 
tific gentlemen entrusted with the work. It also appears that if one 
of them decided that some of the plants were diseased he might quietly 
confiscate the shipment under that clause of the amendment which 
specifies that the Secretary of the Treasury shall not deliver the goods 
to the consignee. It would have been an extremely serious situation 
and might easily have cost the members of this association dozens of 
times all that our legislation work has cost from the outset or is likely 
to cost in the near future. 
Senator Dolliver assured your committee that the proposed amend¬ 
ment was all right, that it had originated in the department of agricul¬ 
ture and had the approval of the nursery interests and that we were 
not justified in opposing it. We assured him that we had never agreed 
to any such thing. The reply came in a flash, “But they say you 
have 1” We responded : “No matter what any one says, we are here 
in the flesh and say to you positively that of our own knowledge we 
know that the nurserymen have never agreed to anything of the sort. 
We have been of the legislative committee from the first that such 
legislation has been talked of. One of us has from the first been chair¬ 
man of such committee and this committee is the only body which has 
ever had the right to speak for the nursery interests of the United 
States in this matter.” He came back at us with the words: “But 
they say you have agreed to this,” and we could only reiterate : “No 
matter what others say, you know us and that we are truthful men 
and we know that we have never agreed to any such thing as that. It 
would be extremely hard upon all the nursery interests of the United 
States which represent at least from fifty to seventy-five millions of 
capital and they cannot on any account submit to any such legislation 
if they are able to prevent it. Of course if it is enacted in spite of 
them, they will then be reduced to the necessity of raising such an out¬ 
cry that the next session of Congress will willingly repeal it but the 
time for action is now. This is not yet a law. An objection from you 
will block it and we ask you in the interests of justice and fair dealing 
towards a great productive industry that no such thing be permitted to 
be smuggled into the law without a proper hearing. If your commit¬ 
tee, after proper hearing, think this law necessary, we shall be over¬ 
ruled of course.” He then answered us as follows : “I do not know 
much about this legislation but I know you men and if you say that 
the nursery interests do not want this and that it will harm their in¬ 
dustry, I will object to it in the Senate which will prevent it going 
through in a hurry.” That was all that we asked. 
"HOW DID YOU FIND THIS OUT?” 
Your committee then sought out the California delegation in the 
house. Mr. Needham of that delegation, upon being called into the 
lobby, said that he had prepared this slip in substance, had taken it to 
the division of plant industry in the department of agriculture, asking 
them to see that the language was such as would be suitable and had 
then taken it to Senator Perkins with the assurance that the nursery 
men agreed to it. We said that the nurserymen could never agree to 
any such thing. He smiled at us and said : “ What I would like to 
know is: How did you fellows find this out?” He continued, “I 
took this over to the department of agriculture only a few days ago 
and said nothing to anyone. It went out from there and here you are,” 
with a strong accent on the word “you.” We assured him that we 
suspected something of this sort without knowing just what it would 
be, went there and as we had made satisfactory arrangements with 
Senators Proctor and Dolliver in the Senate, it was absolutely certain 
that no such thing could be slipped into the Agricultural Appropria 
tion Bill. Then he said : “ Where are you stopping?” and “Can I 
see you to-night ? ” we said that we were at a hotel and should be ex¬ 
tremely glad to give the evening to his convenience. He came and 
some time was spent in going over the bill, striking out those things 
which had been inserted by the effort of Mr. Daniels of California upon 
the assurance that the nurserymen agreed to them. The objectionable 
features were that after having had our nursery stock thoroughly 
examined in any way pleasing to the Secretary of Agriculture. It 
would still be liable to be opened and examined or held up or other¬ 
wise treated according to any law which any one might be able to 
secure in any state. He thought that Senator Perkins would like to 
offer the restored bill in the Senate and endeavor to have it passed as a 
part of the Agricultural Appropriation Bill. Your committee assured 
him that if they would go forward in good faith we would assist in 
every possible way towards its success. Thereupon your committee 
began to do missionary work among such senators as could be readily 
reached, explaining that the bill, as it would be offered by Senator 
Perkins met the cordial approval of the nursery interests of the United 
States. This occupied another day during which the bill was under 
consideration in the Senate. It should be stated in passing that your 
committee reached the committee room of the Senate at eleven o’clock, 
February 12th and the Agricultural Appropriation Bill was laid before 
the Senate, by previous arrangement, at twelve o’clock of that day so 
that we had only one hour, but that hour was enough for our purpose. 
After a couple of days we were informed by Mr. Needham that 
Senator Perkins had decided it to be unwise to offer the bill which 
would be objected to on account of its length. We said that to 
attempt to put anything in a paragraph that would protect the Califor¬ 
nia orange industry and slaughter the nursery interests could not pos¬ 
sibly go through this Congress because we were there and had 
assurances from the Senate agricultural committee that they would not 
consent to it. Thereupon he said that it would be necessary to drop 
everything. We agreed to that and spent another day in explaining 
the situation to senators and representatives of our acquaintance, ask. 
ing them that nothing containing the words “ Nursery Stock ” should 
