The Pensacola journal., 1911-12-12

time, the drainage project is failure,
that it has been film fam game or
swindling to which the state has been
a party. A great piece of advertising
is this broad cast over the country, to
the detriment of the greatest state in
the Union and to the injury of the
greatest enterprise now in progress in
the state. I take issue with him upon
such views.
The plan of drainage and reclama-
ton as inaugurated by the lamented
Governor Broward and which was well
under headway at the time of his
death, is the plan in a general way
which has been followed and is today
being pushed to completion with every
reasonable dispatch. The work as far
as 1t mas progressed, is not a failure,
as he states, but unQuestionably a
success. Large sums of money are not
being wasted, as Mr.. Gibbons states,
but on the contrary the expenditures
upon the project are safe guarded by
strict business methods and economy.
This great property is not being
destroyed as he charges but is instead.
being developed and conserved. The
drainage operations are being conduct
ed upon practical and scientific lines,
his assertion to the contrary notwith-
standing. I refute Mr.. Gibbons inti-
nation that the state, either during
during the present administration, has
been a party to any alleged Ever
glades land frauds.
'T believed the drainage Of the Ever
glades practicable and feasible from
the time informed myself upon the
subject shortly after Governor Brow
ard advanced the issue in 1904, and as
the work has advanced I am still Of
that opinion.
r I1o nf
those under whose supervision the
drainage work has been carried on and
from a personal knowledge of the
territory, the operations and the de-
tails of the plan now being pushed
with every reasonable dispatch, / say
without fear of successful contradic-
ton that the drainage project has been
successfully conducted up to the pres
ent time and will as soon as could
reasonably be expected reach a tri-
umphant completion.
"The progress already made has
been of great aid in the development
in the Everglades territory and has
undoubtedly contributed the inspira-
tion for marvellous development and
improvement throughout all Florida
AS to Mr.. Gibbons statement about
alleged land frauds and his charge
that land was being "sold by the gal
lon,' we all agree that proper action
should be taken to check and prevent
fraudulent land sales, as far as it is
within the power of the state to do so.
But land frauds is one proposition and
the drainage and reclamation of the
Everglades and the plan of the work
is another. If there are instances of
fraud, they are separate and independ-
ent matters from the merits and sue
cess of the drainage plans. I am not
in favor of rejecting upon and injur-
ing the drainage proposition and its
real merits by mixing it up with in
stances of alleged land frauds, and
thereby retard the present unparalleled
prosperity of the state to an extent al
most beyond comprehension. The
everglades has it's rich, fertile and
valuable soil; Florida throughout has
it's millions of acres of good, tillable
and productive land. No state holds
out more advantages to the homeseek-
er or is more attractive and inviting
than Florida. Thousands will be en-
riched and made happy by their COM
ing within our borders. We will attend
to the land dealer who fails to do
business on the square, but in doing