The Ocala banner., 1911-09-08
HOW FLORIDA TOWNS SUFFER
A System Which Robs Them on Ev


cry Shipment Sent or Received
The state or FLORIDA has about 32,-
100000 acres of land.
Under the persuasive influence of
capitalists, who were experts in the
science of economics" the Florida
legislature gave away to the railroads
now doing business here 17,0O0,0 900
acres, or more than half of the state.
The legislature, composed largely
of men who never had the spending
of an income of $500 a year, gave
away to corporations a territory
equal in area to Maryland, New Jer-
sey, Delaware and Massachusetts;
territory of possibilities in produc-
tions not excelled by any part of
Gods footstool.
The reason assigned for this was
that the railroads would develop the
resources of the state.
In the fullness of time people were
attracted to our rich land slying
along the backbone of the peninsula
through Alachua, Levy, Marion, Lake,
Sumter, Citrus, Pasco, fernando and
Polk counties. They bought these
lands in many cases from the rail
roads to whom they had been given,
and applied to them their labor and
money. These lands, which under 20
years of ownership by the railroads
had never produced dollar of rev.
enue, produce thousands of carloads
of freight in the shape of phosphate,
naval stores and vegetables. 1t is by
and upon the traffic created by these
settlers that the railroads live and
| have their being. Take this traffic
away and they would have to go into
the hands of receivers. If they had
to live upon the traffic that origi-
mates in the ,seaboard cities they
could not live a week.
And yet we are told by the expert
economists" who contemptuously
waive our complaints aside, that be-
cause we have spent our good money
in deepening the harbors for large
vessels at the seaports that we must
allow the railroads to give the cities
situated upon these harbors a cheap
er rate than is given to those whose
labor and enterprise render the life
/ Of tho railrOadc DocSihJo
The railroads are not charitable
organizations. They do not pretend
to be. They are in business for the
profit there is in it. This is all right;
we do not object to this, for we are
all in business for profit. But it is a
fact they know what it costs to haul
freight per ton per mile; it is also a
fact that this is no greater from Jack
sonville to Gainesville, Ocala, Lake
land or interior points than it is from
those points to Tampa. If they are
carrying freight to the seaboard cit
| les below the cost per ton per mile,
they are charging the loss up to, and
collecting it from those shippers or
consignees living in the interior who
| furnish them with the bulk of their
| business. If on the other hand they
are making a profit on the haul to
the seaboard cities, they have no
right to make an additional profit out
of their patrons of the interior.
! The Ocala Banner is dead right in
its contention for equal rates to inte-
rior points ,and if our railroad COM
missioners are wise, they will seek
some other teachers in economics
than the professors of high finance
who from Jacksonville attempt to ed
ucate the producers of Florida up to
| the beneficence of a system which
robs them on every shipment that
they either send or receive by rail-
We make no claim for clemency
on account of our having furnished
the money to build these railroads.
! Our legislators, like children play
ing in a casket of jewels, ruthlessly
threw away the value of same of the
kingdoms of Europe. 1t is done, and
we are bound by their act, but no
fine spun theory in economics"
whether emanating from the 'Ocala
Demands" on the one hand, or the
Morgan-Roosevelt benevolent assim-
ilation" school on the other is going
to make the people of the interior of
Florida agree that it is proper and
right for them to furnish the sea-
own heads with.-S. S. Savage, in
Dixie.