The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-10-21
Vox PobuH.
AN OPEN LETTER
To the Merchants of Pensacola From
Their Country Customers.

your request Tor US 10 90 ali our
trading in Pensacola. Nothing could
not possibly want US to any more
than we want to. In fact, we in the
country hive come to you for years
and in many friendly ways have
pleaded with you to help US make 1t
possible.
We love Pensacola, just as you
do, and appreciate that nowhere on
the continent has nature been more
nowhere has she prepared more
lavish with her favors and that
perfect setting for an ideal city.
Eventually Pensacola will take her
place in the diadem of cities that
are to adorn the World at Peace,
and her setting will be the rich,
golden soil of her countryside. To-
day Pensacola is a diamond IN the
rough, and her surrounding country
is gold in the dross. The one must
be cut and polished, and the other
purified and refined, or some other
city and its setting less worthy but
better prepared will be chosen IN
her place.
The World is learning at great
cost and sacrifice that Natures
laws cannot be successfully ignored.
Existence itself depends upon pre-
paredness. To be unprepared for self
defense, for self-support, is to per-
ish. Unpreparedness is not only
folly, it is fatal. That this applies
to every man as we'll as municipal
ity, state and nation, has been
preached for centuries but the
preaching and precept are worth
less without work. Practice is more
potent than preaching.
Mr. Merchant, we take our preach
ing all in good part and appreciate
it. Your argument in your full page
advertisement in last Sundays Jour
nal was entertaining, and we look
with pleasure for the one promised
today.
Your text was we'll chosen-better
than you knew: Emulate William
Dudley Chipley." No man in this
section has stood at his monument in
greater reverence than the writer,
and no man so standing can better
appreciate the heart that can with
stand the ingratitude to the pioneer.
If tradition is true, his progressive
spirit met with many rebuffs in the
| beautiful country he actually died
for in his efforts to upbuild. He
stood for West Florida, and was for
Moline, Milton, Mariana or any
other worthy town of West Florida,
just as he was for Pensacola. APP
preciate your pioneers. men of Pen
sacola, WHILE THEY ARE LIVING,
for they will not all have monuments
to maintain their memory.
We country folks and pioneers are
a patient and plodding lot, and we
sometimes sleep little during
preaching, but never at a perform
ance. Our eyesight is more keen
than our hearing. "EMULATE
CHIPLEY" appeals to us, but better
in performance than in preaching. If
your city will emulate the little town
that bears his name, we can see the
point more clearly. Emulate Chip
ley and patronize your own farmers
and psevide a market for their pro-
duce. Chipley. With one-tenth of
Pensacola's advantages and re-
sources, has done it. Her banks en-
courage every form of agricultural
advancement, for they have learned
by trying that there is nothing that
pays better. Emulate Chipley: Start
by salt-curing our pork and refrig
Grating our meats so that we can
make them as attractive as the kind
you buy in the north and west.
We would delight in raising the
purebred livestock, and we can do
it cheaper in this glorious climate
than it can be done anywhere. And
then, like Chipley, we will soon have
a packing house and the stock to
keep it running. Provide cold stor-
age for our perishable produce SUI
perintended by a man who knows
the markets and what they require.
Erect curing houses and fill them
with our good sweet potatoes that
now rot in the ground while in the
spring you will be paying others
three times as much as they are
worth. Instead of buying hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of
stock feed in the west made of dirt
and molasses, grind up our rich vel
vet beans, corn, pea vines and other
crops and have something twice as
good for half of the money Get into
the peanut game right and come out
and tell US just what you want us
to do and we will be right there
with the goods. Chipley is doing all
these things, and more.
Emulate Chipley; spend a little
more of your good money with US
until we see how it is done. and we
will learn mighty quick to hand it
all back and more in ever and in
creasing amounts.
We will be glad to emulate Chip
ley IF YOU WILL. We are fresh
from the country-SHOW US
HOW.
Let US get together and do some
thing. We have had enough talk
and argument that gets US nowhere.
Your merchants run the office, keep
the books, manage the finances and
make the sales. Find out what must
be done to meet competition, and we
will not only meet il but BEAT Il