The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1912-12-21
FLORIDA AND THE SOUTH

Of great and singular prosperity. be
yOnd doubt, there are united her
conditions of soil, of climate, OF 10
cation, and manifold resources al
most untouched as yet. which are tn
guarantee that these wildernesse
are to blossom as the rose. 1t vii
rot do to import hither processes O
exploitation which are adapted to o.
more northern latitudes-this is thf
ristake of the immigrant; or will II
nc TO leave the development OF th1
country to those crude and wastefu'
methods which have prevailed IN
time past-this is the mistake OF the
native. Native and newcomer mus
both understand that brain ana
Drawn and capital must consplre,
| first to study and then to conquer
/ &C nd:tions which are wholly peculi-
ar. To understand and to master the
country-this is mans sole industrial
task in Florida. But l f0rsee the
time, not far away, when our enor-
nous resources of timber shall be at
once conserved and exploited; when
our endless stretches of fiat woods
shall support herds Of cattle and of
swine, and flocks Of sheep which
fattened on those extraordinary foods
which nature has given us as In com.
pc nsation for our poor and scanty
grasses, and slaughtered at some cen.
trail point-shall feed hungry
world; when our hammocks and
drained everglades and prairies, shall
POUR an immense and continuous
stream of food stuffs into the frozen
north the winter through; when cit
rns and other fruits shall be grown
In our piney woods in profusiop
end Of a quality not elsewhere to be
natched; when factories for the can
ming of surplus products and the
manufacture of our lumber and fl
trous plants into forms Of use and
beauty, and for the spinning and
weaving OF cotton goods, and the
r'anafacture Of sugar and of fertil-
izers in almost limitlcss quantities
shall be multiplied within our Dor
ders; and when the thousand miles
cl our seacOast-an amount as grea,
as that which stretches from Main,
to Nirginia-ando our inland waters
shall yield supply of sea food of d.
vers sorts, hitherto undreamed of and
vastly greater than that of any 9TH
or American commonwealth; and
when our commerce with Europe,
with South American and with the
Orient, through ports artificially
deepened and through the Panama
Canal, will be the source of immense
revenue to ourselves and of bless
ings to the world
1t is, | believe, a sober guess that
ten millions of people will ultimately
have their homes in Florida--and ev-
en- so. it would be less crowded than
connecticut now Is, hardly more
than half SO crowded as is Massa-
chusetts. And it is for these mil
lions, not for today, that some of us
are devoting our lives to the building
up of our common schools, our col
lcges. and our churches. 1t is that
this coming multitude may be equip
ped for the industrial tasks which
await them here and even more
more by far-that they may forever
hc reminded of tasks higher and more
rewarding than those which are in
dustrial, that We are trying to es-
tlpilsh mere on frm foundations
these institutions of intellectual and
moral culture. May they proclaim
to the coming generations that life
is more than meat and the body than
laiment; that no man, no State, no
lation. can live by bread alone, bu,
that the real life is in the life Of
truth. OF goodness, of duty and o.
love!
The United States pOstOffice at FL.
bridge was broken into a few nights
ago and twenty-five dollars in cash