The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-17
WITH GOVERNOR BROWARD ON ~e=.
THE EVERGLADES DRAINAGE WORK

The day which ! spent with Cover
nor Broward and President Bittinger
of the State Press Association look
ing over the Everglades drainage
work which the dredges are now do
ing back of Fort Lauderdale on the
New River was one which l wish
every member of the Press Asspcia-
ton could have experienced. Fort
Lauderdale is on the East Coast rail-
road about 25 miles north of Miami
and has been for years the chief
trading post of the Seminole Indians
who come down the New River in
their canoes and return in, the same
way to their shifting abodes in the
Everglades. The New River is a
swift, deep stream of pure, fresh
water, getting its supply from the
vast Everglades overflow and empty
ing into the Atlantic some three or
four miles from Fort Lauderdale at
what is known as New River Inlet
And here let me digress for a mo-
ment 10 mention a most enjoyable
hour which we spent with Hon.
Thomas E. Watson, of Georgia, at his
beautiful home on the north point of
New River Inlet, where the Georgia
statesman spends a portion of the
winter season and far from the busy
haunts OF men enjoys the quietude of
nature while he pursues the literary
work which has made aim famous and
edits the magazine which bears his
name His home is a beautiful place,
overlooking the Atlantic from the
east doorway and placid lagoon from
the west, and surrounded by palms,
cocoanut trees. and plants and flowers
peculiarly indigenous to that tropic
cline. Los Olas, the Spanish term
fer quietude, I believe he calls the
place, and 1T is well named, for aside
from the song of the knocking bird
and his feathered associates and the
ceaseless murmur of the waves which
seek to utter half the story of the sea
and die in music with the tale un-
told,' there is nothing TO disturb
either the rest or the work of the
man whose name as the author Of the
Life of Napoleon" and the STORY of
France" is as familiar to the literary
world as it is to his millions of fell
low citizens in America who have
either read his Life of Jefferson or
watched his career as one OF the mas
ter minds which the world of politics
and economies has produced. l would
not transgress the proprieties of the
occasion by relating anything of the
purely personal and social converse
sion which that brief hour incom-
passed, but ! have never been more
thoroughly impressed with the mental
penetration Of a man or met one
with a spirit so infectious as when,
in company with the governor of Flor
ida, l formed one of a party. of Flor.
idians who called to- pay their re-
spects to the noted Georgia citizen
who has done as much probably in the
moulding of public opinion as any
other one man Of his time
But TO the Everglades drainage
work. Some six or eight miles up
New River and back into the Ever
\ glades, the state has two dredges in
operation. One has onfy recently
been completed and is only Just be-
ginning its real work The other is
making steady progress in a north
westerly direction toward Lake. Okee-
chobee some fifty miles away. 1t is
the intention to cut two parallel
bitches six miles apart direct from
New River to Lake Okeechobee, thus
retaining the strip between the
bitches as the work progresses and
demonstrating the feasibility as well
as the value of the drainage project.
have never had any doubt as to
the feasibility of draining the Ever
slades-there has never been any
question III my mind that it could
be done-the question that has always
bothered me was whether or not the
work. when completed, would be
worth the cost. But about that fur
Their on.
The ditch which is now being cut
Is 60 feet wide at the top, so feet
at the bottom, is IA feet deep, and
the water, as affected by the tide
and river, comes to within about three
feet of the top, making II feet of
water in the excavation The dredge
has since the beginning been cutting
its way through coral r,,ck of which
there Is over three miles from the
point where the ditch leaves the
river TO The nearest point on the route
where it strikes the soft mud forma-
ton which the greater part of the
route includes. 1t will, according to
the engineers estimate, REQUIRE six
months work to get out OF this coral
rock and into the mud, and progress
then viii be much easier and faster.
The prediction was made that a
canal cut through this coral ledge
would either be impossible with the
equipment which the governor proyid-
ed, or would be so costly that it would
i b2nEruDt the state Vet Cova-no,