The Pensacola journal., 1914-12-20
less people in a free land.

less people in a free land
Millions of Acres Untenanted.
There are today scattered all over
Florida drained, tillable and of ex-
cellent soil millions of acres of land, |
within easy reach of the homeseeker
and close to transportation, with rea-
sonable taxes and at a moderate price
per acre-then why follow the rainbow
for the uncertainties of the tropical
swamps of Okeechobee, when fertile
fields adjacent to schools and churches
are within easy reach?
The drainage scheme of the Ever
glades of Florida continues to be prob
lematical and uncertain. This vast
saw grass wilderness of 1000 square
miles is surcharged by the overflow of
Lake Olxeechobee. This lake receives
it's floods from watershed of 1856
square miles, and spilling over its
southern edge makes the country a
vast aquatic jungle. With the stupend-
Gus amount of money that must neces-
sarily be paid out for canals, with
pumping stations to be provided for.
| with a system of irrigation to be met,
with locks to hold the water in the
canals at certain seasons, with the in
tensity of the rainfall, with the
Ndredges to be employed to keep the
canals free from crumbling rock and
soil as long as the country is in
habited, with cross-country bitches
and lateral canals, together with the
diking of thousands Of acres-with a
| drainage tax that may continue for
half century, ''the drainage of the
Everglades is a problem so vast as to
stagger the average mind. And of the
taxes, no adequate estimate can oe
made Then why the enormous ex-
pense of draining the Everglades when
so much good land is yet unoccupied?
Broadly speaking, the Seminole In
dams are the only race which could
ever successfully make its home in
these marshy Businesses and they
would take them as they are.
These lands and possessions we have
taken from them, and now we have a
duty to perform toward them Surely,
out of our abundance we may let fall
a few crumbs to help sustain them in
their unequal struggle for existence.
OF what crime are we guilty if we fail
| in this, our best opportunity to pay
very little part of the great debt of
| Justice we owe them? There is some
| thing more than money involved. If
| these people are wantonly destroyed,
or crowded out of existence for the
sake OF putting a few more dollars
| into the land spectators pockets, it
will be the foulest blot that has ever
soiled the escutcheon of Florida.
| The SeminoIes' Footprints.
From the northern boundaries of the
| state to the farthermost corner of the
peninsula the history ana wanderings
| of the old turbaned tribe of Florida
can be traced in the soft rhythmical
names they have given to numerous
| lakes, rivers and towns. Around the
very name of Florida clings wealth
| of legends and abiding words of beau
! ty, memorials left by these pathfInd-
I ers, firmly imbedded in the history OIL
| the state Their traditions are not
less interesting and fascinating, ana
retaining, as the Seminoles have done
through centuries, all the picturesque
ness and customs of their ancestors,
their folklore is peculiarly rich, and
in years to come, students and ethnol-
ogists will wake up to research or
their priceless but unwritten records,
and their mythology will be one or
our most cherished possessions. They
have given us an enduring heritage OF
beauty. Shall we give them less than
a belated justice?
Believing that the people of Florida