Los Angeles herald., 1910-07-17
LOSE IN SWINDLE
IN LAND HE SAYS
Veterans Have Lost Money in
Florida Lands, Walker
States in Letter
WOULD PREVENT LONG TRIP
Man Declares He Has InveStigat-
ed ST. Cloud and Zephyr
Hill Colonies
WOULD PREVENT LONG TRIP

Many veterans, some of them living
In the Soldiers home at Sawtelle, have
been defrauded by companies whose al
Turing advertisements have persuaded
them to invest in tracts of Florida
land, according to a John b. A. Wal
kerr who has completed an investigation
of the lands, lasting two months.
According to Mr.. Walker the fraud
which has been practiced consists OF
the concealment of disadvantages in
connection with the lands and the pub
lcation of glowing statements as TO
their wonderful fertility and the crops
which may be raised. Much of the
land which has been sold at $40 an
acre in hve-acre tracts, must be
cleared. fertilized and an irrigation
plant established. The plant required
for such a tract would cost approx
mately $1,000. Nothing of this Is said
In the advertisements. The letter fol-
lows:
THE LETTER
PORTSMOUTH, Va, July 10,
1910.-Editor of The Herald, Los
Angeles, Cal: ..
on my departure from the city
of the angels" l promised several
hundred Union veterans that |
would stop in Florida and investi-
gate the claims made by several
colony associations who had ap-
peaIed directly to the thousands
of old soldiers on the humane
ground of furnishing them with
small farms at a. price so low as
to be within the reach of every
pensioner, and with a soil and cli-
mate so nearly perfect as would
guarantee profitable results with
but little or no labor and insure
them good home for their al
ready declining years.
The promises made of vast proht
from every kind of vegetable and
fruit seemed almost to smack of
the impossible and after full two
months spent in visiting these so
called soldiers colonies and nu-
merous other financial get rich
quick" schemes of a like nature,
all based on the plan of the orig
inal st. Cloud colony and its later
adjunct, the Zephyr Hills scheme,
I am in a position to state that the
grounds offered are the very poor
est and cheapest scrub pine lands
they could secure in all Florida,
bought for the sole purpose of Sc
curing the greatest amount possi-
BILE through the confidence born of
comradeship. Scarcely five-acre
tract sold can be made productive
without a large additional expense
after clearing, heavy fertilizing and
also by irrigation.
PLANT COSTS $1,000
A plant for irrigating five acres
of such sand hills costs $1,000.
(This estimate was finally reluc-
tantly furnished me in writing by
the Zephyr Hills colony at Abb
bott; this with the statement that
their land was not vegetable land,
but for farming, and that farming
land in Florida did not require ir-
rigation.) Yet | have numerous
letters received from the same
source while in California that this
land was most productive in vege-
tables that would net from $5 to
$500 per acre and no cost men
toned to attain such results be-
yond the original philanthropist's
price of $40 per acre.
Much of this land has already
been sold and paid for without
chasers and 1t is expected that be-
tween August is and September
the majority of these purchasers
will leave their northern and west
ern homes, many, understand,
from the Pacific coast, having
bought. and will take the long,
expensive journey to Florida for
the first time to find themselves
cruelty duped and swindled by
those in whom they had confidence
through the bond of comradeship.