The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-09-18
EXPOSING THE
MAGAZINE ISLANDERS

When magazine writer's confine
themselves TO short stories they
are on safe ground whether the
stories have any merit or not, but
when they extend the area OF their
activity into criticism and fiat state
ments Of alleged conditions prevail
ing in the various States and COM
munities and warn the public
against those conditions a blue PEN
Gil highly charged with caution,
knowledge and wisdom should hover
over their manuscript 1t is easy to
do great injury 10 whole State by
Misrepresentation in such cases
even when the writers did rot in
tend 10 miSrepresent, and We are
glad that the officials OF yigilant
boards Of trade in Florida are watch
Ing the me- Sazines !. this respect
and are promptly callins them
down when they nai il
\ recent Stor! in the SATURDAY
Evening Post. read by thousand. in
every State n Ii" Union. might ere
ate ,hs impression ii some minds
that Florida was huge organized
cor same and was a sooi State
for people lot to buy land in. al
though the writer doubtless .ntend-
ed e convey no such idea But
whether intended or not, il is very
certain that other parts 81 the conn
try, Including Canada and Calitor-
MIA. are jealous OF Florida's increas-
ing attractions TO settlers and capt.
tai and they ara quite willing to use
the popular magazines 10 cheek the
tide Of money aid people coming
this way even By printing .lagrant
misrepresentation loncerning US.
The real value 70 Florida Of our
boards of trade and their secretarie.
Is well illustrated in the activity Of
the latter il running down" these
ISLANDERS in various publications and
exposing their true character. The
following from the Times-Union 10
pertinent TO this subject;
That the national magazines are
in good many cases Of late the VIC
Tins OF magazine writer's" nothin.
more nor less. in stories that land a
knock al Florida ard lis real estate
market. advantages. climate and 9TH
er things, is what the commercial
bodies in Pensacola. jacksonville
and other cities OF the State are Just
now much exercised about The
whole thing has not been announced
yet but there has been rather ex-
tended correspondence between the
Curtis Publishing Co. Of Philadel-
phia, ard the boards OF trade in
Florida, with reference 70 al,esed
erroneous stories carried BY ore or
more al the maga-ines published by
that t.- house TIE stock letter
which has been sent ON. :. Is sa...
TO sev57a, 1,a-is Q: trade Il F,or.3a
in rep,y 70 >teks REGISTERED y s"2h
on a reference Il bow settlers a,e
"ski.re3 alive" in Florida. Is AZ
pearsd = he Saturday Fss-:1-
Post Of a few weeks az, reads in
this manner
Your va,@ed favor al the tn ha.
been duly referred 10 Nj, Bro, sor
and as soon as We hear from him
about the particular thing 70 which
you take exception. We Will write
you fully Yours very tralv The
Editors, Curtis Publishing Co
Secretary Leland J Henderson.
OF the Pensacola Commercial As.o-
citation. has been for rumte. o.
years watchdog o. the publicity
from IRE outside concerning Florida.
With no special reference 10 the
Curtis Publishing Co.. but referring
10 other publications o. the country
which carried stories ~ magazine
writers OF Florida, BE has written
the hoard Q, trade here:
They are too sh.ewd 10 come
out o7er'y ard say 50. hut attacks
on the health. climate a-d a3yaa-
taees Of living OF the 81. ooas. are
made as a. Indirect means Q. Coz
vircirs r. oso-,e q ire cor-t-y
that the South Is undesirable. Real
1y the Co.'S = is ;-.e a-5 - must
wake up Down here ana !-s;s, O.
the facts bs:-E made known.
-