The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-26

truthful writing and in illustration
to the best of magazine articles? The
late Henry O. Havemeyer would have
regarded an annual report of that
kind as a monstrosity- Yet his sue
cessors in the management of the
company have issued an annual re-
port which might we'll be printed as a
magazine article; no or
wOuld-be investor can read that re-
port without getting a thorough
knowledge of the management and
condition of the company.
Other corporations are now adopt
ing this method, and it is probable
that within the course of a few years
the corporations which are colo
quially known as big business" will
make their annual reports not only
truthful, explicit and complete, but
will so illustrate and word these re-
ports that even a child will take in
terest in reading them.
One of the great men of finance of
the United States stated recently to
the writer that while he could not
yet accustom himself to his new
vogue. which is called publicity, new
ertheless he had become satisfied that
For" said he, eff there be publicity
there will be light and if there be light
hen deeds of darkness are impos-
sible."
4 day or two ago another one of the
large corporations. issued an annual
report in pamphlet form picturing
forth its various plants, describing
how the commodities it manufactures
are used, and explaining, as a school
teacher would explain to his class,
the meaning contained in the income
o and the alance sheet.
From the Atlantic to the GuIf.
Although the state of Florida Off
cially opened on Thursday to naviga-
ton the artificial waterway in south
ern Florida by les of which it will
be possible for cOasting vessels hay
ing a draught of about ten feet to
navigate from the Atlantic to the Gulf
of Mexico, vet private information re-
Ceived in this city a month ago re-
Ported the navigation of this canal
by small coasting vessels as early as
part of the great drainage system
by which it is hoped to reclaim five
million acres of land in southern
Florida and within two or three years
will be the parent or chief stem of
a system of five canals. So many as
these are needed in order completely
to drain what a few years ago was re-
garded as irreclaimable- This under
taking is understood here to be who'll
ly apart from those private undertake
ings which have recently caused a
good deal of scandal. Florida her
self owns this land, and it will be
from the state that any purchase
of the lane will receive his title. If
there be hereafter any speculation in
this land that will be undertaken by
private individuals who have bought
land from the state. Much of the
Inspiration for this public work un-
dertaken by the state of Florida is to
be traced to the influence of Henry
NJ. Flagler. He it was who took UP
the work of developing southern
Florida, as well as interior Florida,
some twenty years after the English
capitalists. in association with some
who lived in Philadelphia, planned
and partially began the work of de-
Velopment of the agricultural lands of
central Florida. 1t was for the pur-
pose of inspecting this work that
President Arthur, in the spring of
1888, made an excursion to interior
Florida, accompanied by his secre-
tary of h navy, William E. Chandler.
President Arthur had no other in
terest in this work than that of & citi-
zen, not presuming, of course, that the
United States would be called upon
to share in the undertaking excepting,
possibly, by canalizing the Ca1oosa-
hatchie river. The engineers had re-
ported that this river could be canal
lied to Lake OkeechObee and the en-
gineers employed by the English and
Philadelphia capitalists also reported
that a canal could be built from the
head waters of the ST. Johns river to
Lake kissimmee-a distance of
about thirty miles-and that the out
let of Lake kissimmee could be ca
nalized to Lake OkeechObee. Presi-
lent Arthur penetrated as far as the
southern end of Lake Kissimmee. He
returned to Washington persuaded
that his enterprise had been under:
taken too soon. In that judgment he
was correct. Twenty years later Mr..
Flagler began his great work upon
the east coast of Florida, recently
completed by the establishment of a
terminal for his railway system at Key
West. He also was convinced that by
a system of canals stretching from
the sea to Lake Okeechohee and by
the canalizing of the CaIoosahatchie
river navigation from the Atlantic to
the gulf would be made commercially
practicable, while at the same time
millions of acres of very fertile land
would he made available for all kinds
of agriculture which flourish in the
sub-trOpical regions. Mr.. Flagler has
lived long enough to see his railroad
completed and also to see the artifi-
cial waterway cut from the Atlantic
to the gulf. HOLLAND.