The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-10-02
THE OkLAWAHA RIVER I'M
PROVEMENT
THE

The Washington correspondent OF
the Chicago Daily Tribune, along
with other correspondents of the big
newspapers in the larger cities across
that famous geographical line sepa
rating the sections. poo-hooed the OK
lawaha river improvement, about
which the correspondent is as 1gnor'
ant as a billy goat from the Fiji Is.
lands.
Mr.. Herman J. Zeuch of Davenport,
Iowa. a leader of the progressive
movement in Iowa, an eloquent ora
tor, and a gentleman of commanding
influence in his state, happened to
have been a visitor to Ocala on one
occasion, and visited the reclaimed
lands of Messrs. Kyle and Young, on
the Oklawaha river, and became thor
oughly familiar with the contemplate
ed improvement of that river
AS soon as he saw the unjust criti-
cism of the Washington correspond
ent of the Chicago Tribune of this
really meritorious project he replied
to it as follows:
Davenport, Ia, Sept. Z, 1914.
Editor Chicago Tribune, Chicago, ILL.,:
Dear Sir-In today's issue of your
paper, on page sixteen, column one,
appears an article. what the Pork
Bill Grab Means" Under the head,
"Vicious Items" you refer to some
creeks in North Carolina, and after
which you assail the items pertaining
to Florida. 1t is the latter that has
induced me to offer this protest
against your ill-advised stand.
Your staff correspondent expresses
the most profound ignorance in ref
erence to Florida and Florida's
streams. In this article he states
that the Kissimmee river is dry eight
months in the year, when as a mat
ter of fact, he should have stated that
it overflows its banks in many places
over four months in the year.
The Oklawaha river he mentions as
a winding stream of no particular ben
eft to anyone except a man named
Young, who owns 1000 acres along its
banks, and if improved at the govern
ment's expense. Young's land would
increase in value 5000 to 5000 per
acre. The dense ignorance of such
a statement is nothing short of Grim
inal. l do not know Mr.. Young, have
never seen him, have no interest in
his project, but I have been on the
tract of land referred to which is
owned by Florida corporation, and
not by Mr.. Young personally.
In the first place, the tract is only
a speck on the banks of the Ottawa
ha river; the owners have diked the
river at their own expense, cut chan
mel several miles in length, and so
far as their own lands are concerned,
would reap no direct benefit from this
contemplated improvement. Aside
from the fact that it would furnish
water transportation to Jacksonville
for the farmers from an exceedingly
fertile region and also result in the
reclamation of many other tracts
equally as valuable as the Young
tract, now owned by men who have
not the private means to accomplish
what has been accomplished in the
case of the Young tract.
Florida has the soil and climate to
grow enough vegetables and fruit for
the entire nation of a systematic bus
mess course is pursued in retaining
her overflow lands; but If congress
persists in playing politics, rather
than adopting constructive business
methods, the cost of living, instead OF
receding, will be going higher and
higher, and the masses of consumers
will be paying the price for sending
politicians rather than conservative,
hard-headed business men to repre-
sent them in the halls of congress
Nor is congress altogether to blame
when such publications as yours take
such an unwarranted position as yor
have taken in the Oklawaha river i'm
provement project.
l am not a democrat, have been out
of sympathy with much that the Will
son administration stands for, but
do believe in giving credit where cred
it is due, irrespective of politics oil
other considerations. If the present
administration carries through the