The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-09-05

The Internal Improvefnent Fu&d
and the DisstOn Sale. ~

rect opinion as TO the necessity for the
sale and TO understand the circumstances
under which the present administration
made IL. Every fair-minded man viii; We
believe, conclude that there was nothing
left to be done but TO make such q sale,
if purchaser could be found That one
was found we believe the people of the
State will congratulate themselves.
Twenty-Five cents per acre may be
thought by some a small price for the
land. As stated in the article, we doubt,
considering the quantities in which it is
taken, and the general character of the
land, that men experienced in handling
lands will so pronounce.
The question is sometimes asked why
any one could not buy 40 or l6O acres
at the same price, and We are told this is
used as an argument to create dissatisfac-
ton. The answer is patent One who
buys 40 or 100 acres or other small guam
titles, selects his choice from the whole
body, and twenty-five cents is not reas-
enable price for it; whereas, one taking
bodies of 10000 acres must take vast
quantity of worthless land. Again, had
the Trustees sold small quantities at such
prices the better lands would all have
been taken and there would have been no
good lands left in the large bodies TO in
duce the purchase of the latter Another
reason, moreover, is that the whole area
of the land was liable for the great and
increasing mass of matured Indebtedness
that had accumulated, and sale of
large quantity was the only remedy for
relieving it; whereas, sale of the pick
of the lands in small bodies at such a
price would have tended to defeat instead
of promoting relief
The sale was a good thing and the peo-
pie who understand it will approve it.
As general thing We are opposed to
selling large bodies of land, whether of
State or United States, to spectators, and
Onl approve it in this instance because
there appears to have been no other
means of relieving the Fund of the i'm
mense debt resting on the lands. 1t is
analogous to the case of an individual
whose whole landed estate is mortgaged,
but who sells portion of it in order to
save the balance. Everybody would COM
mend the wisdom of such a course, and on
the other hand would condemn as folly
the refusal to sell any part and run the
risk of losing the whole An indebted
ness of nearly one million of dollars rested
on these lands, and so long as that indebt-
edness continued the lands were totally
unavailable for public improvements of
any kind. The question was between
selling portion and saving the balance,
or holding on to the whole and running
the risk of the creditors, clamorous for
their money, procuring an order of court
directing the sale of all the lands to pay
the debts. Had this been done and the
lands been sold, the very persons who
now find fault with the sale TO DisstOn
would have denounced the Trustees as
imbeciles for not having made it The
whole body of swamp lands, if sold under
an order of court as was liable to be the
case, would not have brought five cents
an acre. There are millions of acres of
these lands, SO the surveyors report, not
worth cent an acre as they are, and it
| il uttarlX iuDossibIa for n SaIo ~ A 600
900 acres to have been made, to be Sc
lected in bodies of 10000 acres, without
the purchaser getting a fair share OF
worthless land. 1t is a well known fact
that Mr.. Disston has parted with one-half
of his purchase at loss to himself OF
100000.
Another reason justify'ng and calling
for the sale is found in the fact that not
one of the several railroads whose char.
tiers contain land grants could have re-
ceived an acre outside Of the alternate
sections until the Indebtedness of the
Fund was discharged. AS to them the
lands were literally tied up. They were
totally unavailable for any purpose ex-
cept to pay their own debts The grants
made by the last and previous Legisla
lures were worth no more than so much
waste paper But all this the Disston
sale has changed, and the lands now left
amounting to over 100000 acres, are
available for railroad building while the
100000 acres sold go on the tax-booke
to help swell the taxable resources of the
State and aid in reducing taxation.
Taking all the circumstances into con-
sideration, We think every intelligent cit.
izeh will say that the Trustees have acted
wisely and well. No one supposed, when
the Gainesville Convention two years ago
pledged the Democratic party to the ex-
trication of the Internal Improvement
Fund and the completion of the railroads
to Pensacola and to Tampa, that the
achievement would be an accomplished
fact in SO short a time so far as the Fund
is concerned; but it has been done. The
incumbus is removed, and Florida has re-
ceived an impetus from it that has placed
her on the sure and certain road Of growth
and prosperity. 4