The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1909-02-11
The Mental Obliquity of
A Valued Contemporary

The Jacksonville Times Union
should remember Bamiet's philosophy
and give The Journal credit for adopt
ing it. There are times when one
must be cruel only TO be kind, and
if certain recent remarks of ours
have touched the raw" of our. es-
teemed contemporary, we can only at
firm that that was exactly what was
intended. For The Journal has no
sympathy with the Times Union in
the methods it has adopted to belittIe
Ex-Governor Broward's efforts to Sc
cure capital to Drain the Everglades
methods which have probably inter-
fered with the progress of the work
and prevented the Internal Improve
ment Board from receiving offers
which would have been of great ad-
vantage to the state.
The latest editorial In the Times
Union Is written in that vein OF mis-
Understandings Will not say
resentation-which it always
adopts when dealing with this CUES
ton. las we understand" It declares
I'VE are accused Of objecting to the
sale of lands at So per acre under
water by an administration whose
that those lands would be worth 500
to 500. per acre when drained
''When drained.V Will our befuddIed
brother please get that idea thorough
~ .imbedded IN his brain. The sale
Of the land under the Bolles contract
that is not worth one cent an acre in
its present condition and will not be
worth one cent until the drainage Is
completed. This viii certainly be
helped on much better and to a mucb
/ speedier conclusion with one-half the
million and odd dollars TO be paid by
| BoIles under his contract than il
would have been had the friends of
the Times Union succeeded in re-
newing their forfeited contract at the
magnificent sum of twenty-five cents
an acre.
| The Times Union asks a great many
questions. does lot of Socratic stunts
in the way of diaIetic and receiving nc
| answers reaches the remarkable con-
| clusiOn that we have sold drained
land for much less than the governors
estimate of its value How is il
possible to attempt sensible argument
against such a delusion? There is
such thing as a market price and a
prospective. value; but the marker
| price is what governs sensible pur.
chasers. The ancient owners Of Jack
sonvilIe property no doubt thought
and pTophesied that In few years
from the time they sold. q lot % by
| 100 would bring ten times as much
as they charged for an acre. but pur-
/ chasers. OF course, paid what was
then the market price and were not
over beguiled by the well-intentioned
booster. But suppose the most prom
inent newspaper in the Gate City had
used its columns to run down the
value OF such property. had made evil
prophecies concerning the city's fu-
| ture and questioned the good judg-
ment and even the integrity of prop
erty owners or agents. how many pur-
chasers would have been found willing
/ TO pay even a low market price?
The Tines Union. published in
Florida's leading city and having a
larger circulation that any other
newspaper in the state. should really
try to get over its depIorable menta'
obliquity about this drainage question
and help the state to obtain the high
est price possible for the Everglades
based on their future fertility. Two
dollars an acre is certainly not a
high price. but it is four hundred pei
cent better than twenty five cents
when one half of II is deducted for
drainage purposes. And it must be
remembered that that half viii drain
not only the 50S.000 acres sold under
the BoIles contract, but vast tract
still in the states possession which
/ may ultimately bring in an enormous
/ cash sum besides Increasing for 81
time the tax valuation OF property.