During the past month of September at a meeting of the local directors of the coffee growers associations of Porto Rico. held in the Federal Bank of San Juan. we proposed through Mr. Thomas. manager of said bank. a plan of loans for the members of the associations of $25 for each cultivable acre of coffee during the first year. $15 the second. and $10 the third. beginning to pay from the fourth year on. both interest and principal. Without this help. which could be extended to all the coffee growers. or without some other form of loan. which the Government may see well to grant. the ruin of the farmers is inevitable. and they will either have to hand over their farms to their creditors or thus become paupers or emigrants. A tariff protection for our coffee as high as 10 per cent per pound on toasted coffee would avoid the ruinous competition done to our coffee causing so much damage to us. With most sincere sympathy for whatever you may do in behalf of these longsuffering farmers. who put this matter on your able hands and on the solicitous care of our mighty Government. we are.
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emigrants