The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1883-08-07
Mr. Long Replies.

| EDS. FLoKIDIAN The Monticello Cozstit,tttuJ1
! has the following:
| In the August number of the NorM and .SuuUt
The editor says he has repeatedly offered the USE
If his columns TO the Immigration Bureaus OF
| The South tor the grdtuitous publication OF arti
Cles of interest, and in many instances his gen
crous Overures have been disregarded. And in
the case of Florida. the editor says " 4 Ledding
immigration officer Of that .Stue refused ~ furnish
tntormation unLe*s paid By as tor 80 dotng"
! This is a serious charge, and influences the
pertinent question: Have these Immigration
Agents. whose services are paid for by the State,
legal or moral right to demand additional pay
from private parties for information furnished in
! reference 10 the climate soil and advantages Of
| Florida? If they have, then the " immigration
Agents should be happy for they have bo-
| nanZa.
Hon. Columbus Drew, of jacksonville, and
myself, the only tive Immigration Agents in
Florida o. the correspondence of Mr.. Drew
with the editor of the North and South, l cannot
speak Of communications between that paper
and myself, the following are the facts:
| Several times during The fall and winter OF
1882, the editor of the Aorh and !SouM enclosed
sample copies of his paper IL the Commissioner
Of immigration, accompanied in most instances
by written communication recommending the
of Adcertising the Bureau OF Immigration of
Florda-such advertisement TO be pull tor
As the office Of the Commissioner was in almost
daily receipt of like offers of the use OF their
columns from newspapers all over the country,
accompanied by sample copies OF the several
papers. and rs the Bureau has never had al its
disposal one dollar to expend- for advertising, /,
rs Secretary Of The concern, soon tired of an
swerlng communications of this character, 9TH
erwise than by sending TO the writers, postpaid,
such printed matter was on hand for dislrbu-
ton
But 80 repeated were the overtures OF the
NORTH and South for AL Observation-Disclosures after
reading several of the copies Of the paper Sent
the Office, and being really impressed with the
excellent character of the paper did finally
write to the editor of that paper, stating that
regretted the laci that the Bureau OF Immigra-
ton Of Florida had no fund at its disposal for
advertising. that all the advertisements given it
by the State papers were gratuitous, and done
through public spirit. l sent TO the editor copies
OF such pamphlets rs were on hand descriptive
Of Florida, from which he was al liberty TO
"gratuitOusly" publish many extracts he
saw fit. 1t may be worthy of mention in pass
ing, that rs far as / know he has never seen fit,
Notwithstanding the State pamphlet has well
written articles descriptive of all the counties in
Florida.
AS have never deemed it part OF my Off
cal duty clerk of the Bureau to help edit
somebody's newspaper felt under no sort OF OBJ
legation 10 write communications for the NORTH
and South, even had that paper ever offered
its columns gratuitously for such a purpose.
achich I assert ii necer did. All letters from that
paper to the Bureau are still on die in my Office
and speak for themselves
The only newspaper in the United States that
ever offered gratutous publication of cnmmun-
cations from the Bureau WAS the american Gru.
Ger, published at Chattanooga, Tennessee, and in
response to that offer Commissioner Robinson
supplied it with an excellently written article
Florida, 80 600 copies of which were given away
at the Atlanta Exposition.
Now then the pay l asked for from the editor
of the North d South was this: wrote TO him
that was land agent; that ii he would give
my land business an advertisement in his paper
would be pleased to pay for 1t by series Of
letters descriptive Of Aiddle Florida. After
some time had a response from him in which