The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1915-01-14
An Alabama View

The Morning News, an excel
lent daily published in Dothan,
Alabama, criticises adversely an
editorial recently appearing in
The Herald, in which it was stat
ed that this paper is run on a plan
that keeps it prepared for any e.
! mergency likely to arise in the
weekly newspaper business. The
criticism is based on conditions as
they exist in Alabama and evinces
ignorance, quite naturally, of
those prevailing in South Florida.
Had our critic been informed of
the situation in this region, he
would doubtless have endorsed
The Herald's editorial.
There is almost as much differ
ence in conditions between South
Alabama and South Florida as
there is between Circle City, Alas
ka, and Douglas, Arizona. In this
region we raise pineapples, orang-
es, babies and other articles of use
and joy. In Alabama, they raise
Scent cotton and three-cent poll
ticians and the people are always
Boosting about their poverty,
They seem to take as much pride
in their poverty as we do in our
prosperity; hence, the buy-a-
bale cutlery and the appeal to con-
gress for help.
| In Alabama, towns grow; in
Florida, they are built. In Ala
bama>a railroad comes along and
makes the opportunities which act
as fertilizer in the production Of
towns.
| In South Florida, a few men go
out into the wilderness and lay
out a town. They clear off the
site, build dwellings, store houses,
churches and schools. While
they are doing this they call for
achievements. They advertise
in newspapers abroad and send
out thousands of circulars invit-
ing good people from everywhere
to come and share with them the
opportunities, the blessings Of an
incompatible climate and fertile
soil. Pretty soon they have a vii
lage of several hundred people
and then they begin to cry for a
newspaper to expedite the build
ing of the town and the develope-
ment of its surroundings. The
call for newspaper carries with
it the implied, if if not the direct
promise to support it. And in ev-
cry instance they do support it.
Meanwhile the editor is not idle.
He works like the dickens for
business for himself and settlers
for the town. His everlasting
horn-blOwing about the superior
advantages of the town results in
attracting outside attention and
inducing new settlers to come in.
Most of the newcomers pay him a
dollar and fifty cents a year for
his paper and spend each $4,000
to $4,000 a year with the local
grocers and about one-third that
amount with the dry goods and
clothing merchants. Sometimes
there is business man, who, not
outstanding personal argument
and solicitation and the offer of
value given, does not appreciate
either the direct or the indirect
benefits which he receives from
the work of the newspaper and, in
such cases, it is quite proper to
give him "a Delicate Hint"
1t is not long before the village
expands into town, and then a
railroad comes along and enlarges
and accelerates the boom. The
editor, the preacher and the school
teacher all work hand in hand ;
and, in view of what they accom-
plish, they are entitled to a sup
port and that, too, without hav-
ing to beg for it.
Here is the gist Of the whole
thing as regards South Florida
first came a few people, pioneers ;
then, the newspapers; then, the
railroads; then more people and
the emergence of the state from
obscurity and poverty to fame,
prosperity and genuine greatness.